324 TiMEirrD^. 



Group VI. CRATEROPODES. 



In this group are placed the true Babbling-Thrushes, remarkable 

 for their strong clumsy feet and claws and powerful rounded wings. 

 As a rule they are gregarious in their habits, and are poor songsters ; 

 but there is much in their form which is suggestive of the true 

 Thnishes. All the genera here enumerated seem to me to be closely 

 allied inter se, though it is not easy to place them in linear order ; 

 but the true C rateropodes extend in an unbroken series of genera 

 through Garrula.v and its allies to Suthora and Paradoxornis, which 

 cannot be far removed from the Paridce. Eupetes is an aberrant 

 Timeliine form, with affinities towards Oinclus and ffenicurus, and 

 Dnjmcedus seems to be allied to the true Timelm. The genera 

 most out of place in the present group appear to me to be Mega- 

 luridus, CindorhampJms, and Calamanthus, the two latter being 

 quite aberrant, whilst Mcr/aluridits seems to be a Grass-Warbler in 

 its habits. Farther research will perhaps lead to the disposition of 

 these genera in other groups of birds ; but, after considering all 

 points of their structure, it seems to me that their natural affinities 

 are rather with the Crateropi than with any of the other groups 

 admitted into the present volume. 



Key to the Genera*. 



a. Bill equal in height and breadth at nostrils, 

 or at least not higher than it is broad. 

 a'. Shafts of tail-feathers produced and stiff- 

 ened 1 . Ortho.nyx, p. .329. 



b'. Shafts of tail-feathers ordinary. 

 a". Tail longer than wiug. 



a'". Wing rounded, the distance between 

 the first and second primaries less 

 than the tarsus. 

 a*. Tail less graduated, the distance 

 between the outer and the middle 

 tail-feathers much less than the 

 tar.sus. 

 a'. Wing slightly more pointed ; first 

 primary long, and equal to the 

 long secondaries; tarsus short, 

 not more than one fourth of 

 length of tail 2. Cinclosoma, p. 331. 



* Amongst the Crateropodes lias hitherto been placed the genus Tkaniaoca.- 

 taphus of Tickell. This genus was established by this author in 1849 from a 

 single specimen said to have been procured near Darjiling, and named by him 

 Thamnocataphiis picatus. This specimen has remained unique in the Indian 

 Museum at Calcutta, and has been considered to be an Indian bird by all sub- 

 sequent writers, who have placed it in the vicinity of Gampsorkynchus, a true 



