582 MOAT-HEN— MOCKING-BIRD 



exhibited by the tibise of the two genera, that of Pachyornis being 

 further distinguished from the corresponding bone of all the 

 preceding members of the Family by the inflection of its distal end. 

 The sternum (fig. 3, B) is likewise very different from that of the 

 other forms, being very wide and flat, Avith broad and divergent 

 lateral processes. The skulls found with the limb-bones of P. 

 elephantopus near Oamaru Point, and transmitted with them to the 

 British Museum, have pointed beaks, and there is much probability 

 of their reference to this species by Owen being correct. P. 

 elephantopus, of which the remains, often charred by fire, are 

 extremely abundant near Oamaru Point, was a large species, the 

 tibia measuring 24 inches in length ; but P. immanis was still larger, 

 with a remarkably wide tarso-metatarsus. R. Lydekker. 



MOAT-HEN, an old name for the Moor-hen. 



MOCKING-BIRD ^ is the name given by naturalists and 

 others to a number of birds that possess the power of imitating the 

 notes of other species of the Class. Comparatively speaking, 

 however, it almost exclusively applies to the Mocking-bird of 

 America, the Mimus polyglottus of recent ornithologists. This re- 

 markable bird is regarded by those who have investigated its 

 structure as belonging to the Family Troglodytidse, a group containing 

 the Wrens, Thrashers (Harporhynchus), and their allies ; a sub- 

 family, Miminse, within this Family having been created to contain 

 such birds as are represented in the United States by the last- 

 named genus, as well as the genera Oreoscoptes, Mimus and Galeo- 

 scopfes.^ 



The most THRUSH-like forms among the Troglodytidse are more 

 or less closely related to the Turdidge, the Family containing the typical 

 Thrushes, and none more so than are the several genera above 

 named. Indeed, many ornithologists regard the Miminse as being 



^ For this article on a subject which can only be fitly treated by an American 

 ornithologist I am again indebted to Dr. Shufeldt. The earlier English naturalists, 

 Charleton, Ray and Catesby wrote the name "Mock-bird" ; and in England 

 either form, or more often "Mock-Nightingale," is occasionally given to the 

 Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla, and the Sedge-bied. In India and Australia the 

 name is sometimes applied to other species, and even in North America two 

 Wrens, Thryothorus ludovicianus and T. bewicki seem to be widely known as 

 "Mocking-birds."— A. N. 



- In this connexion see the paper by Mr. F. A. Lucas entitled Notes on the 

 Osteology of the Thrushes, Miminse, and Wren^ {Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. vol. xi. 

 1888), and two papers by the present writer, viz. On the Position of Chamsox in 

 the System {Jour. Morph. vol. iii. No. 3, 1889, pp. 475-502), also Contributions to 

 the Comparative Osteology of the Families of North American Passeres {Jour. 

 Morph. vol. iii. No. 1, 1889, pp. 81-114). 



