REVISION OF THE GENUS TURDINUS. 65 



NOTE XIV. 



A REVISION OF THE GENUS TURDINUS AND 

 GENERA ALLIED TO IT, 



WITH AN ENUMERATION OF THE SPECIMENS 

 CONTAINED IN THE LEYDEN MUSEUM 



J. BUTTIKOPER. 



When looking over the material in the Leyden Museum 

 of what is at present generally understood as the genus 

 Turdinus and closely allied genera , I found it in many 

 instances extremely difficult, even with the aid of the key 

 to the genera in Sharpe's Catalogue of Birds, vol. VII, 

 to find out the genus in which a great number of species 

 usually are placed. This inconvenience is greatly due to 

 the want of well-marked characters in a number of closely 

 related genera, while, on the other hand, genera have 

 been united which, on account of a sufficient number of 

 striking diSerences, would better be kept separate. 



There is, for instance, no necessity whatever for uni- 

 ting the genus Malacocincla with the very different, thrush- 

 like genus Turdinus , while , on the other hand , genera 

 as Erythrocichla , Drymocataphus , Trichostoma and Malaco- 

 pteron are much more closely allied amongst each other 

 and to Malacocincla than this latter is to Turdinus ^). 



1) Genera, as a rale, are based upon structural characters, though the se- 

 paration of the genus Merula from Turdus sufficiently shows that there is 

 already made use of the modus of coloration in some cases of generic classi- 

 fication. 



P^otes from tlie Leyden Museum, "Vol. XVII. 



5 



