that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 443 



as well as by common observers ; and yet the former have gene- 

 rally ranked the Pari in a different tribe, and some indeed have 

 even ranked them in a different order from the Sylviada, in con- 

 sequence of their more conical bill and the absence of the man- 

 dibulary notch. A rigid deference to those particulars which form 

 the characteristics of the conterminous subdivisions would cer- 

 tainly exclude the Pari from the present tribe ofDentirostres. But 

 the nature of their food, which consists chiefly of insects, and the 

 similarity of their habits, give them a more natural connexion with 

 the families among which I have now ventured to point out their 

 place, than with the hard-billed and granivorous birds, where they 

 are generally stationed. Here it may also be observed, that they 

 form part of one of the extreme families of the tribe, and are 

 immediately connected with a group of the preceding family of 

 SylviadfB, which passes on to the Conirostres, the succeeding 

 subdivision of the order. They thus are brought into contact 

 with the tribe to which the strength and the conical structure 

 of their bill indicates a conformity ; while at the same time they 

 maintain their station among the groups where their manners 

 and general economy would naturally place them. The Pari, 

 which thus introduce us into the present family, lead us on to the 

 more typical groups of the Linnean Pipra, with which they bear 

 an acknowledged affinity in manners and general appearance*. 

 The genus Pardalotus, Vieill., which is the representative of the 

 latter group in Australasia, appears to connect these two allied 

 groups of the Old and the New World, by exhibiting the nearly 

 divided foot of the one and the partially curved bill of the other. 

 Here come in the Rupicola, Briss., and Phibalura, Vieill. And 

 here, as I have already observed when speaking of the Thrushes, 



* " Les Manakins d'autre part leur bcc court, et leurs proportions generales, 



les ont fait long-temps regarder comme assez semblables k nos Mesanges." Cuv. liegrie 

 Anim. i. p. 363. 



VOL. XIV. 3 M I appre- 



