438 Mr. N. A. Vigors on the Natural Affinities 



group seems to lead by Pitta, Vieill., and perhaps Cinclus, Bechst., 

 through some intervening forms, to the true Thrushes, or the ge- 

 nera Turdus of authors and Merula of Ray, which form the type 

 of the family. To these we may add that portion of the Lin- 

 nean Orioles, which, possessing the curved and notched bill of 

 the Thrushes, constitutes the genus Oriolus* or true Oriole of the 

 present day. Here we meet several groups, generally arranged 

 without order in the Linnean genus Turdus, and hitherto en- 

 tirely uncharacterized, which gradually lead from the typical 

 groups to those which possess a more generally delicate confor- 

 mation ; until the comparatively strong form and robust bill of 

 the Thrushes is lost in the weaker body and more slender bill of 

 the Warblers. Here again the group of Rock Thrushes, of which 

 the T. saxatilis is the type, appear to bring us round, hy their 

 general habits and assimilating characters of bill and tarsi, to 

 Myiothera, where we entered the family. Those birds which 

 constitute the groups which we denominate Chatterers^ and which 

 form the genus A mpelis of Linnaeus, are usually assigned a place 

 near this family : and I must confess that, from the general 

 affinity which they appear to bear to it, 1 have felt, and still feel, 

 considerable doubt whether this be not their natural station. A 

 strong affinity, however, on the other hand, seems to unite them 

 with the wide-gaped Pipra, and some of those other groups, 

 which by their bill, broad and depressed at the base, appear to 

 come in contact with the earlier divisions of the present tribe, 

 and the extremes of the Fissirostres which precede it. The gene- 

 ral rule of placing groups in a conterminous situation, according 

 to what appears to be the predominance of their more important 



of that gentleman, Formklvora, Urotomus, and Drymophila, in the 1st volume of the 

 " ZoologicalJoiirnal," p. 301. Nov. 1824. 



* " Galbula cum Turdis et Merulis Rostri totiusque corporis figura, mag- 



nitudine quoque et victfis ratione convenit." — Rail St/n. Meth. Av. p. 68. 



characters, 



