436 Mr. N. A. Vigors 07i the Natural Affinities 



than that of a Flycatcher, we proceed by means of Psaris, Cuv., 

 and ArtaTnus,Viei\\., to Dicrurus*, Vieill., the fork-tailed Shrikes 

 of the Old World, where the base of the bill is still depressed 

 and wide, as in the groups we have just quitted, but the apex 

 gradually more compressed. Hence we are led by some inter- 

 vening forms to the still more compressed bills of Sparactes, 111,, 

 and the true Lanius of authors, which by its short, compressed, 

 and strongly dentated bill, exhibits the type of the family. Here 

 we are met by some conterminous groups, among which Falcun- 

 culus, Vieill. is conspicuous. And hence we descend by inter- 

 mediate gradations to the more lengthened and slender-billed 

 Vanga, Cuv., together with Prionops, Laniarius, and Thamnophi- 

 lus of M. Vieillot, which bring us in contact with the Thrushes. 

 The extremes of the family will be found in the Graucalus and 

 Ceblepyris of M. Cuvier, which by their bills, in some degree de- 

 pressed at the base, lead back to Tyrannus and the other broad- 

 billed groups which commence the family. This last-mentioned 

 genus Ceblepyris has latterly been arranged with the Thrushes. 

 But I feel inclined rather to leave it in its original station among 

 the Shrikes, from the peculiarity of its tail-coverts, which form 

 themselves into a kind of puffed-out cluster on the back. This 

 character seems to prevail among the LaniadcB more generally 

 and to a greater degree than in other birds : in one species of the 

 family, \he puff-backed Shrike of Africa, now rendered so familiar 

 to our cabinets from our connexion with the Cape, this singular 

 protuberance is carried to so great an extent as to form an appa- 

 rently artificial appendage to the back. In the genus before us 

 this peculiarity seems even still further developed in the well- 



* This group is perhaps more generally known by the name of Edolius, which 

 M. Cuvier has assigned it. 1 adopt the more ancient term, according to the suggestion 

 of Mr.Swainson in his valuable observations on this family [Zool. Journ. vol. i. p. 303.), 

 adhering to the inflexible law of priority. Nov. 1824. 



.;- "i known 



