PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 453 



of birds some species, in their colors, only represent the immature or 

 young state of another species. And as the young and the old birds 

 are frequently verj^ unlike in their coloration, the species thus conse- 

 quently also look very unlike in their various stages. They may, how- 

 ever, be very closely allied, and often more so, than very simihirly 

 colored species. This objection applies also to the matter here under 

 consideration. The first species of Turdus, which Mr. Seebohm gives, 

 is maranonicus Tacz., from South America. As I have had no oppor- 

 tunity to examine a specimen of this bird, I must content myself with 

 the figure {Proc. Zool. ^oc. Lond., 1880, pi. xx). At first sight I was 

 inclined to indorse the view of Mr. Seebohm, and was much perplexed 

 to find a Turdus in South America. But, examining the structural char- 

 acters given in the description, I soon became convinced that the species 

 must belong to Merula. I had not to wait a long time before I obtained, 

 to my satisfaction, an interesting proof that this opinion was correct. 

 The same day Mr. Eobert Eidgway called my attention to the pi. Ixxv. 

 of Sclater and Salvin's "Exotic Ornithology," and pi. xxix. in Froc. 

 Zool. Soc. Lond.^ 1867, representing the young Turdus pJucopygus Cab. 

 A comparison with the young bird on Taczanowski's plate shows that 

 these birds are very closely allied and never should be placed in differ- 

 ent, even subgeneric, groups. Merula maranonica (Tacz.) is evidently 

 an immature bird,* which, perhaps, may later take a plumage more 

 resembling that of the adnlt phwopyfjus, but I should not be surprised 

 at all if future investigations would prove that it retains the immature- 

 looking plumage also in the adult state. Its place near 21. pliKopiiyns 

 must, however, be the same in both cases. 



There is another work having a very important bearing on the sub- 

 ject to which it is necessary to refer in any dissertation on the arrange- 

 ment of the American Thrushes, namely', Prof. S. F. Baird's "Eeview 

 of American Birds." Written sixteen to eighteen years ago it is still 

 the best treatment of the subject extant, and the views exin^essed 

 therein vindicate their i)lace above more recent essays. And I am glad 

 to say that if I have succeeded in the following arrangement it is due 

 to the most valuable hints which the work above mentioned contains. 



As to the limits of the family, I have already remarked that I chiefly 

 agree with Mr. Seebohm. It will, therefore, be perceived that I do not 

 admit the Mimincc^ which Professor Baird in 1804 placed as a sub- 

 family with the Turdidcv. It seems to me that their proper place is 

 near the Wrens, among which they also had been included by him in 

 his work on the Birds of North America (1858). In fact the Mocking- 

 birds are so closely allied to the Troglodytidte that I am inclined to 

 believe that the most natural arrangement would be to include them as 

 a subfamily along with the TroglodytinK within the same family. 



* I liiive it ou Mr. Lawrence's authority, that Mr. Sclater has determinefl T. luara- 

 novicus to be the young of T. nigrlcrps, Jelski, Dr. Stejneger's prediction Ijeing thus 

 fully verified.— R. E. 



