Mr. H. Seebolim on the Genus Sylvia. 309 



ornithological student must patiently labour at shaping his 

 pieces, at working his families into shape, and fitting them 

 into the families nearest allied to them. 



The genus Sylvia has by many ornithologists been placed 

 at the head of the family Sylviidee. Wallace, in his ingenious 

 classification of the Passeres, founded on the comparative 

 development of the bastard primary (Ibis, 1874, p. 409), 

 places this family between the Turdidae and the Timeliidae. 

 Professor Newton (Newton^s ed. Yarr. Brit. B. i. p. 300) admits 

 his inability to give any structural characters by which the 

 Sylviidse may be separated from the Turdidae. Sharpe, in 

 liis modification of Sundevall's classification of this group of 

 the Passeres (Cat. of Birds, iv. p. 7), proposes three families, 

 Muscicapidse, Turdidae, and Timeliidae. In the former he in- 

 cludes many species hitherto placed in the Sylviidae. The 

 Turdidae he restricts to such species as have small bastard 

 primaries and comparatively flat wings, whilst his family of 

 Timeliidae appears to be a general refuge for the destitute, 

 including the round- winged Turdidae {Mimus &c,), the round- 

 winged Sylviidae [Drymceca &c.), the Timeliidae, as hitherto 

 estricted, the Cinclidae, the Troglodytidae the Leiotrichidae, 

 the Phyllornithidae, and the Pycnonotidse. 



I venture to suggest that the characters by which these 

 three proposed families are separated, the width of the bill, 

 the development of the rictal bristles, and the shape of the 

 wing, are characters of comparatively modern date, and may 

 form excellent lines of demarcation between subfamilies. 



I propose to throw these three families as defined by Mr. 

 Sharpe together, and to subdivide them into two large families, 

 separated from each other by characters which, I venture to 

 suggest, are much older [i. e. extending further back into 

 remoter geological ages), and which, at the same time, will 

 give to Prof. Newton the desired characters which separate 

 the Thrushes from the Warblers, 



I propose to include in the Turdidae those species con- 

 tained in the group under consideration which possess the 

 following characters : — 



The young in first plumage are spotted on the upper parts 



