No. 1.] NORTH AMERICAN PASSERES. 93 
and which will appear elsewhere, I have gone over and quite 
thoroughly presented accounts of the skeleton in the Families 
Syluiuda@, Paride, Certhiide and Troglodytide, so it will not be 
necessary to reproduce this work in the present connection; 
suffice it to say that in so far as the first of these families are 
concerned, the writer has not as yet had the opportunity of 
investigating the osteology of Phyllopseustes borealis, but with 
respect to the remaining two sub-families of this group, the 
Reguline and the Polioptiline, they seem at present to be 
classified in accordance with a natural system, and have been 
assigned places in keeping with their structural characters as 
we now understand them. In figures § and 6 of the Plates, I 
have drawn superior views of the skulls of a Regulus and a 
Polioptila ; and although these birds possess a skeleton in each 
case essentially passerine, it in no way shows any especial 
affinity with the 7wrdide@, at least any more than do the skele- 
tons of a number of other representatives of this Order. 
Auriparus flaviceps of the next following Family, the Paride, 
I have never yet had the opportunity to examine,! but am fully 
satisfied that Chamea fasciata is a Tit, that has its nearest affin- 
ity in the representatives of the genus Psa/triparus, — that is, in 
so far as I have examined it, and its North American congeners 
are concerned, — and has, moreover, I think, certain troglodyti- 
dine characters still clinging to its organization, which perchance 
may have been derived from the stock from which Ga/eoscoptes 
carolinensis sprang, in common with Wrens, Thrashers, and 
Nuthatches, etc. This may possibly account for Chame@a and 
Galeoscoptes being alike in some particulars, as the uniformity 
of color of their plumage, its laxness, the scutellation of the 
tarsi being nearly obsolete in each species ; somewhat similar 
habits, and finally both laying wnspotted blue eggs. Of course 
should such an affinity exist, it can be but very remote. The 
1 At this point I desire to say that since the above was written I have received a 
beautiful series of specimens of Aurzparus from my friend, Mr. Herbert Brown of 
Tucson, Arizona, who has likewise, with very great generosity, sent me much other 
material from his region, illustrative of the group of birds we now have under con- 
sideration. This and much more will now have to be incorporated in my paper 
upon Chame@a, and a supplementary paper or two which I hope to bring out upon 
the morphology of the North American Passeres, some time in the future, wherein I 
intend to compare more thoroughly my work with the published labors of W. K. 
Parker and others in the same fields. 
