Miscellaneous. 441 



quently merely indicated by empty places where the absent organs 

 are never developed, as is very readily seen with respect to the sta- 

 mina of those plants. We may therefore infer among the ordinary 

 causes of disturbance in the floral symmetry, such as abortion, mul- 

 tiplication, degenerescence and adhesion, likewise that of the non- 

 development of organs. 



2. With respect to the origin of the union of the stamina called 

 monadelphous, diadelphous, polyadelphous and synantherous, their 

 adhesion is always subsequent to their first formation. The family 

 of the Stylidice (Stylidium adnatum) alone appears to me to furnish a 

 remarkable exception to this rule as regards the adhesion of the 

 styles. 



I shall here enumerate three principal kinds of irregularity among 

 all the irregular corollas which I have examined : — 



1. Irregularity by simple inequality of development among the 

 several segments of the corolla, with complication of adhesion or 

 complete atrophy or arrest of growth ; this is the most common. 



2. Irregularity by deviation, where the segments although equal 

 turn all of the same side ; for instance, the corolla of Sccevola laevi- 

 gata (Goodeniacece), and the genera with ligulate florets of the Com- 

 posite. 



3. Irregularity by simple metamorphosis of the stamina, as in the 

 family of the Cannece, and probably that of the Zingiberacece. — Comptes 

 Rendus, Aug. 16, 1847. 



Chamsea, a new genus of Birds allied to Parus. By Wm. Gambel. 



Bill short, tapering to the point, acute and compressed. Both 

 mandibles entire, ridge of upper elevated, and curving nearly from 

 the base ; the depression for the nostrils large, oval and exposed ; the 

 nostrils opening beneath a membrane in the depression. Wings 

 very short and much rounded. Tail very long and graduated. Tarsus 

 long. 



Chamcea fasciata, nobis. Ground Tit. 



Parus fas ciatus, nobis, Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci. vol. ii. p. 265. 



This interesting bird, placed provisionally among the Titmice, I 

 have now made the type of a new genus, not being able as yet to 

 find a suitable place for it among those already described. 



For several months before discovering the bird, I chased among 

 the fields of dead mustard stalks, the weedy margins of streams, low 

 thickets and bushy places, a continued, loud, crepitant, grating scold, 

 which I took for that of some species of wren, but at last found to 

 proceed from this wren-tit, if it might so be called. It is always 

 difficult £o be seen, and keeps in such places as I have described, close 

 to the ground ; eluding pursuit by diving into the thickest bunches 

 of weeds and tall grass, or tangling bushes, uttering its grating wren- 

 like note whenever an approach is made towards it. 



But if quietly watched, it may be seen, when searching for insects, 

 to mount the twigs and dried stalks of grass sideways, jerking its long 

 tail, and keeping it erect like a wren, which, with its short wings, 

 in such a position it so much resembles ; at the same time uttering 



Ann. $ Mag. N. Hist. Vol.xx. Suppl. 32 



