244 



SAXICOLINyE. 



STONEGHATS AND ALLIED SPECIES. 



Feom among the very numerous species of birds belonging 

 to the order Cantatores may be selected those which in form 

 and habits bear a more or less decided resemblance to the 

 Wheatear, and which may be formed into a group so blended 

 on all sides with others, that the species on its limits may with 

 equal propriety be referred to them. If any general and cha- 

 racteristic idea can be given of this group, it may perhaps be 

 expressed as follows : — 



The bill is rather short, straight, slender, tapering, depressed 

 at the base, compressed beyond the nasal groove ; the upper 

 mandible with its dorsal outline declinate and straight at the 

 base, convex toward the tip, which is slightly decurved and 

 obsoletely notched ; the gape-line straight. Both mandibles 

 are concave, with a medial prominent line. The tongue is of 

 moderate length, slender, papillate at the base, two of the 

 papillae being much larger, horny towards the end, with the 

 edges lacerate and the tip slit. The oesophagus is of nearly 

 uniform width, the proventriculus oblong with simple ob- 

 long glandules; the stomach of moderate size, roundish or 

 elliptical, compressed, its lateral muscles rather thick, the ten- 

 dons rather large, the cuticular lining tough, thin, and longi- 

 tudinally rugous ; the intestine of moderate length and width ; 

 the coeca very small and oblong ; the rectum dilated into an 

 elliptical cloaca, PI. XIII, Fig. 6. There is thus no essential 

 difference between the digestive organs and those of the other 

 families, especially the Sylvianae, Parinae, and Turdinae, the 

 Alaudinse alone differing in having the stomach more muscular. 



The general form is slender ; the head rather large, broadly 

 ovate, and anteriorly convex. The eyes of moderate size ; the 

 nostrils oblong, in the lower and fore part of the nasal depres- 



