TITS AND ALLIED SPECIES. 419 



families, which moreover agree in many of their habits. On 

 the other hand, the Parinae are still more closely allied to the 

 Sylvianae. Thus the transition from the Reguli to the smaller 

 Tits is almost direct, and some of the Warblers, especially 

 those of the genera Sylvicola and Jora, are just as much Tits 

 as any thing else. The genera of which this family is com- 

 posed seem to me to be Parus, Mecistura, Ixos, and perhaps 

 Pachycephalus, for those which various authors have associated 

 with them do not present characters indicative of sufficient 

 affinity to authorise their admission into it. Indeed, the sub- 

 family Pariange of Mr Swainson, (properly Parinae, Parus 

 and not Paria being the generic name), is a most heterogeneous 

 association, in which are brought together, to form a circle, 

 birds belonging to the families of Myiotherinae, Sylvianae, and 

 Parinae. Thus, of its five genera, Setophaga, of which the bill 

 is acknowledged to resemble that of a Muscicapa, certainly 

 belongs to the Myiotherinae or Flychasers ; Sylvicola has been 

 improperly separated from the Sylvianae ; Accentor, obviously 

 is more a Saxicola or a Rubecula than a Tit ; and Trichas, 

 which completes the magic circle, has been stolen from among 

 its friends the Warblers. Many really distinct genera are re- 

 ferred by him to these groups as sub-genera ; while on the 

 other hand, in a different circle, that of the Motacillinae, in 

 order to retain his favourite number five, he finds it necessary 

 to tear away Anthus from Alauda, placing these two most in- 

 timately connected genera in separate families. In truth, it 

 can only be by exaggerating, misrepresenting, and suppressing 

 facts, that any system like that adopted by him can possibly be 

 upheld. 



As to the habits of the Parinae, it is unnecessary to say much 

 respecting them here, as they will receive sufficient illustration 

 in treating of the different species. They inhabit forests, woods, 

 and thickets, where they search for insects and larvae among 

 the foliage and in the crevices of the bark, and the axils of the 

 branches, clinging to the twigs, and using every possible variety of 

 attitude and gesture. Small seeds also form part of their food, 

 and although generally seen on the branches and twigs, where 

 they move with the greatest ease, they sometimes betake them- 



