I022 WARBLER 



forms of Aquatic Warblers are far too numerous to be here 

 mentioned. 



It seems expedient to recognize a subfamily Drymcecinse, which 

 may include some 15 genera and nearly 200 species ; but about its 

 composition and limits much doubt cannot fail to be entertained. 

 If its existence be acknowledged, the remarkable genera Orthotomus 

 (Tailor-bird) and CisUcola (Fantail) may be fairly admitted as 

 belonging to it; but of them enough has been said (pp. 238, 942) 

 and it is obviously impossible to dwell here on the rest. 



In the group Dryrncecinm is placed by some authors the Australian 

 genus Malurus, to which belong the birds aptly named as " Superb 

 Warblers," since in beauty they surpass any othei-s of their 

 presumed alUes. Part of the plumage of the cocks in breeding- 

 dress is generally some shade of intense blue, and so glossy as to 

 resemble enamel, Avhile black, white, chestnut or scarlet, as well as 

 green and lilac, are also present in one species or another, so as to 

 heighten the effect. But, as already stated, there are systematists who 

 would raise this genus, which contains some 15 species, to the rank 

 of a distinct Family, though on what grounds it is as yet hard to say. 



Of the other subfamilies, Saxicolina}, Sylviinx and Phylloscopinse 

 will be conveniently treated under Wheatear, Whitethroat and 

 Willow- Wren, while the Rutidllinse have been already mentioned 

 under Nightingale, Eedbreast and Eedstart, and the Accen- 

 torinm under Hedge-Sparrow (p. 895).^ 



II. The birds known as " Ajvierican Warblers," forming what 

 has now been long recognized as a distinct Family, ^ Mniotiltidx, 

 remain for consideration. They possess but nine instead of ten 

 primaries, and are peculiar to the New World. More than 130 

 species have been described, and these have been grouped in 20 

 genera or more, of which members of all but three are at least 

 summer visitants to North America. As a whole they are 

 much more brightly coloured . than the Sylviidx {Malurus, if it 

 belongs to them, always excepted) ; for, though the particular 

 genus Mniotilta (from which, as the fortune of nomenclature will 

 have it, the Family takes its right name) ^ is one of the most 



& 



^ It is to be hoped that before long some competent ornithologist w ill take on 

 himself the task, necessary if toilsome and perhaps ungrateful, of revising the 

 work that has lately been done in regard to these birds and the Thrushes, and. 

 setting aside all preconceived notions, fixing the limits of the Family or Families, 

 if Families they be, and at the same time adjust the relations of the hitherto 

 indefinite group of Timelias. 



" Some American authors have called the Family " Wood-AVarblers ", an 

 inappropriate name, and inconvenient since it has long since been specialized 

 in England. 



•* By some writers the Family is called Sylvicolidse, a practice which contra- 

 venes ordinary usage, since the name Sylvicola was preoccupied in conchology. 



