CATALOGUE 



BIRDS. 



Older II. PASSEIIIFORMES 



(Vol. iii. p. 1). 



Suborder I. PASSERES 



(Vol. iii. p. 1). 



Group 11. CICHLOMORPHyE 



(Vol. iv. p. 6). 



Family TURDID.E. 



Bill slender, but rather wide and depressed : Aving long and 

 flat, with a verj' small bastard primary not more than half the 

 length of the second, the latter generally longer than the secondaries. 

 Composed of birds generally migratory. — Shar^e, Vol. iv. p. 7. 



The family of TitrdidiP, as defined by ilr. Sharpe in his modifi- 

 cations of Sundevall's classification of tlie Passeres, in the last 

 volume of the Catalogue of Birds, is an artificial one. It con- 

 sists of birds belonging to two distinct families, which are separated 

 from each othei- by structural characters of greater importance (('. e. 

 extending in all probability to a remoter geological period) than 

 those which divide either of them from the Mnscicapidce and the 

 Timeliiche, as defined in the classification referred to. Under these 

 circumstances I have endeavoured to meet the difficulty by making 

 two provisional subfamilies, which I characterize as foUows: — 



SYLViix-i:. The young in first plumage differ very slightly in 

 colour from the adult, both being generally unspotted both above 

 and below, and the ditference being confined to the shade or degree 



VOL. v. . B 



