BOOK NOTICES. 301 



birds {Neetariniidce) are placed on one side because of their tubular and extensile 

 tongue ; and the other families are divided according to the character of the nest- 

 ling plumage. Dr. Shufeldt has recently written a paper on the osteology of 

 North American Passeres, from which we gather very few crumbs of comfort; and 

 Ave doubt whether any great differences of structure are going to be discovered in 

 the families of Passeres, all of which seem to be built on one type. The study, 

 however, is too much in its infancy for us to know anything yet for certain. 



With regard to the nine-primaried birds, all of which we have described in the 

 British Museum " Catalogue," can any naturalist venture to say that tbere is any 

 real natural affinity between Swallows and Finches, or between Finches and Pipits, 

 or between Swallows and Wagtails? They seem to us about as distinct from one 

 another as any families of birds can well be, and if their proximity in the system is 

 due to their having all of them nine primaries, then this character cannot be worth 

 much if it leads to such a result. In our arrangement of Passeres in the "Catalogue" 

 we began with the Corvida as the highest type of bird in our opinion. Since 

 that date (1877) our knowledge of Passerine birds has been enormously increased, 

 and, although our idea of the high position.of the Corvidm has been upheld by Pro- 

 fessor Newton, Dr. Shufeldt, and other naturalists, it is for the very reason that it 

 is a perfect type of Passerine bird that the Raven ought to be placed in the middle 

 of the system, but not at either end. 



Thus, supposing that the Corvidce, as represented principally by the genus Corvus, 

 be admitted, for the sake of argument, as the highest type of Passerine bird, in 

 what relation would the other families stand towards it, if we try to illustrate 

 their natural relationships by a table? 



Accentoridae Hirundinidae 



Turdidae— Sylviidae 

 Cinclidae Museicapidae 



Troglodytidae Timeliidae 



Dicruridaa 

 Paradisiidae Arlamidae 



Corvidac Oriolidae 



Ptilonorhynchidae Eulabetidae 



Sturnidae 



Ampeliilae Diceidae— Meliphagidae— Nectariniidae 



Regulidae — Paridae 



Certhiidae Laniidae 

 Mniotiltidae Vireonidae 



Caerebidas 



Tanagridae Motacillidae 



Alaudidae 



Ploceidae 

 Trteridse Fringillidae 



