440 



APPENDIX 



Family MNIOTILTID^. 



Mr. Seebohm has entirelj- left out the consideration of the genus 

 PoUoptiJa from the Pifth Volume of the ' Catalogue,' although aU 

 recent authors have considered them to be true Sylviidce, and the 

 only representative genus of this Old- World group in America. As 

 it is impossible to place them vrith the nine- quilled MniotiUidce, they 

 are inserted here ; but I believe that the most natural position for 

 the genus will be in the vicinity of the Muscicapine genus Stenostira 

 (Cat. B. iv. p. 267), to which, both in form and style of coloration, 

 Polioptila bears a striking resemblance, as has already been pointed 

 out by Bonaparte, Sclater, and other ornithologists. Should this 

 classification turn out to be correct, it wiU afford another instance 

 of the affinity of the avifauna of North America with that of South 

 Africa, as already noticed in the occurrence of Petrochelidon spilodera 

 at the Cape, a close ally of P. pyrrlionota of North America. 

 The following is the synonymy of the genus : — 



POLIOPTILA. 



Polioptila, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1855, p. 11 . . 



Type. 

 P. cffirulea. 



Bill and wing of Polioptila C(srulea. 



Rancje. North America ; Central America ; South America except- 

 ing the extreme southern portions ; Cuba. 



