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SYLVIANiE. 



WABBLERS AND ALLIED SPECIES. 



Taking the Blackcap, Garden Warbler, and Whitethroat as, 

 along with other species, forming the genus Sylvia, and as- 

 sociating with it various groups of small Songsters belonging to 

 both continents, and more or less related to the Turdinae, Saxi- 

 colinse, and Parinse, I consider the family thus constituted to 

 be sufficiently natural, although it might be difficult to distin- 

 guish as belonging to it several species placed on its limits. 

 The European genera are S^/lvia, Philomela, Phyllopneuste, 

 Calamoherpe, Sibilatrix, Begulus, and several others ; and the 

 American genera are Syhicola, Vermivora, Trichas, Beguliis, 

 and some less natural groups. They may collectively be cha- 

 racterized as follows. 



The Sylvianse are birds of small size, none of them much 

 exceeding the Nightingale. They are generally of a slender 

 form, with the head rather large and ovate ; the bill short, 

 straight, slender, tapering, rather broader than high at the base, 

 compressed toward the end, its outlines very slightly convex, 

 the mandibles sharp-edged, the notch of the upper obsolete or 

 faint. The tarsus is of moderate length, slender, much com- 

 pressed, distinctly scutellate before ; the toes moderate, slender, 

 with arched, extremely compressed, acute claws. The plumage 

 is soft and blended ; the wings of moderate length, more or less 

 rounded, of eighteen quills ; the tail also of moderate length, 

 and composed of twelve feathers, but rounded in various de- 

 grees, even, or emarginate. The nostrils are small, oblong, 

 operculate ; the aperture of the ear large and elliptical. The 

 palate is flat, the mandibles moderately concave ; the tongue 

 is of moderate length, emarginate and papillate at the base, 

 narrow, grooved above, horny, thin-edged, its point slit and 



