CHAPTER XVI.— GREENLETS 



Fam. VIREONID^ 



Char. — Small dentirostral Oscines, related to the Shrikes, 

 with ten primaries and extensively coherent digits. Bill shorter 

 than head, moderately or very stout, compressed, distinctly 

 notched and hooked at tip. Rictus with conspicuous bristles. 

 Nostrils exposed, overhung with a scale ; the short, bristly and 

 erect frontal feathers reaching to the nasal fossse. Wing of 

 variable shape, of ten iirimaries, the 1st short and spurious, 

 one-half or less the length of the 2d, in one small group rudi- 

 mentary, displaced, and apparently wanting. Tail rather short, 

 nearly even, of narrow feathers. Tarsi Osciue, the lateral 

 laminae being entire except at base below, the anterior aspect 

 scutellate; not shorter than the middle toe and claw. Toes 

 soldered at base for the whole length of the basal phalanx of 

 the middle digit, which is united with the basal joint of the 

 inner digit and basal and next joint of the outer one ; these 

 coherent phalanges very short. Size small ; coloration simple, 

 oftenest greenish ; young not spotted or streaked. 



"In the adhesion of the toes at their bases there is some 

 resemblance to the Troglodytidce, but their structure is different. 

 In the latter family the joints are lengthened, the basal of the 

 middle, about as long as the 1st and 2d of the outer, and equal 

 to or a little longer than the basal inner. In Yireonidce the 

 basal joints are abbreviated ; the basal of the middle about 

 equal to one and a half joints of the outer, and not quite as 

 long as the basal inner. This difference is, perhaps, related to 

 the more or less terrestrial habitat of the one, and the strictly 

 arboreal of the other. In Yireonidce, too, there is a greater 

 tendency to having three rows of scales on the upper part of 

 the palm, on the three toes respectively, instead of having 

 the outer two rows united more into a single series." — {Baird.) 



The members of this group, for the most part, used to form 

 a portion of the extensive family of the Shrikes {Laniidce)^ 

 chiefly on account of the stout hooked and notched bill ; but 



4d3 



