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THREMMAPHILUS. COW-BIRD. 



The birds of which this family is composed are intermediate 

 between the Starlings and the Grakles. Some of them also 

 approach very near to the Thrushes. 



Bill of moderate length, or rather short, moderately stout, 

 nearly straight, compressed towards the end ; the upper man- 

 dible with its outline slightly declinate and convex, the ridge 

 narrowed at the base, the nasal cavity being very large, the 

 edges sharp and rather inflected, with a slight notch close to 

 the slightly decurved tip ; the lower mandible with a long 

 rather acute angle, its crura rather broad and sloping outwards, 

 the dorsal outline straight, the edges sharp. The gape-line 

 ascends at the base, and is then direct. 



Internally both mandibles are concave, with a central pro- 

 minent line ; the palate straight, rather narrow, sloping up- 

 wards at the sides. The characters of the digestive organs are 

 unknown to me. 



The eyes are rather small, the eyelids fringed with very 

 small feathers, and having a very narrow crenate margin ; in 

 some species there is a bare space on the side of the head, in- 

 cluding the lower eyelid. Aperture of the ear roundish, of 

 moderate size. Nostrils elliptical, oblique, open, with an arched 

 horny operculum, and placed in the fore part of the long nasal 

 groove, which is covered with slender feathers, curved back- 

 wards. 



The feet are moderately stout ; the tarsus rather short, stout, 

 compressed, with seven anterior scutella, and two longitudinal 

 plates forming a thin edge behind. The toes four ; the first 



