456 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



and CicMopsis sliould be removed from their usual association with 

 Ftilogoni/s, among AnipeUdw, to, or at least very near, the Ttirdklw^ and 

 •form a subfamily with Platyeichla. The latter genus is so closely related 

 to Oichlopsls as ahnost to be the same; Platyeichla forming the link with 

 Turdince through Planesticus, while such species as Myiadestcs unicolor 

 show tbe affinities of Cichlopsis to Myiadestes.^^ But so far as I can 

 detect, Dr. Elliott Coues is the only author who, in his " Birds of the 

 Colorado Valley" (1878), has adopted the view of Professor Baird, in- 

 cluding the subfamily Myiadestinw witbni the family Turdidw. I have 

 been much surprised to find those birds excluded by Mr. Seebohm, who 

 has so nicely pointed out the value of the spotted plumage of the 

 young Turdidw, and of the coincidence of this character with smooth 

 tarsi, and on the other hand to find them treated by Mr. Sharpe under 

 the Timeliidcv.* Thd essential character of this latter group is their 

 short and concave wing. But it is evident that the wing of the Mya- 

 destincc does not in any respect differ from the structure of the wing of 

 the Turdinoe, being rather longer than the average of the latter group, 

 and as flat and straight. The relationship between the Meridw of the 

 true Thrushes, and the Plafycichlece of the "Fly catching Thrushes" 

 (Coues) is so close, indeed, that several species, which really belong to 

 the latter group, are usually found — also in the new ^' Catalogue of the 

 Birds in the British Museum" — included in one of the genera compos- 

 ing the former division. 



The earlier placing of these birds within the AmpeUda' is only due to 

 their " resemblance in general ai)pearance," and the differences have 

 already been pointed out so exhaustively by Professor Baird, that it is 

 unnecessary to repeat them here. The group will not, however, be 

 naturally limited or clearly defined without removing the species Mya- 

 destcs Icucolis (Tschudi), which is widely different, from the Myadesfinoe, 

 beiiig a true member of the Ptiloyonatidoe. As its characters do not 

 agree with those of any other genus, it will be necessary to make it the 

 tjpe of a new gen us. t 



It will be seen that in the following arrangement I have attached 

 much importance to Ihe form of the wing. It is certainly' true, that in 

 the Passeres, the more pointed wings very, often indicate migratorial 



*As to the latter, it is {iroper to state that he himself is not content with the place 

 thus attributed to the Mnadesihioc. Here are his own wortls {torn. cit. p. 368): "The 

 present iiosition of the birds contained in this subfauiilj' is not satisfactory to my 

 mind. * * » Mr. Seebohm has not admitted them into his volume of the 'Cata- 

 logue.' I have, therefore, i)laced them near the Mockiug-Thrushes, which they 

 resemble in their power of song." 



tENTOMODESTES, 11. g. 



fEi/To^a^rinsects, e(5£0T^s=:Rii eater). 

 Type — Entoinodestcn leucotis (Tschudi) — 



•. Head without crest. Outer primaries broad, not attenuated nor pointed at end ; 

 l8t about half the 2d. Tail graduated, the feathers acute and acuminate at tips, the 



