No. 1.] NORTH AMERICAN PASSERES. 97 
its skeleton the characters of our true warblers. Take, for in- 
stance, such a well-known skeleton as that of Dendrotca coro- 
nata ; it possesses all the typical passerine characters on a small 
scale, and almost with a provoking likeness to some of the larger 
forms of the Order. Indeed, could we bring the skeleton of 
such a Warbler up in size so as to equal the skeleton of Hes- 
perocichla nevia, the similitude between them would be marvel- 
lously close. As one might easily imagine, the osteological dif- 
ferences between D. coronata and such another Warbler as Pro/o- 
notaria citrea are very slight, and the reader has but to compare 
figures 3 and 15 of the Plates to appreciate the statement I have 
just made. More than this, I will warrant that from a complete 
collection of the skeletons of all our American Passeres, I can 
choose representatives from a variety of the families that will 
intergrade, both as regards size and characters, and connect such 
forms as our D. coronata and H. neévia, most perfectly, and I 
have just said how much the extremes of such a series are alike. 
Be this as it may, let us return again to the centre of our 
Warbler system, and speaking quite strictly from osteological 
premises, we find from D. coronata through the genus Sczurus 
the affinity with the /Zotacz/lide is easily demonstrated; no 
doubt, somewhere in this kinship the Ground Warblers of 
the genus Geothlypis come in. My ideas about the position of 
Icterta, I have already given in my Chame@a paper, and I here 
present a view of the superior aspect of its skull (Fig. 14).! 
Coming back again to the skeleton of our Warbler, how easy is 
the transition to the Creepers through such a creeping species 
as Minotilta varia, a complete skeleton of which form is before 
me. The linking with the tanagrine forms I have elsewhere 
alluded to, and through the genus Setophaga perhaps, the clama- 
torial group may be linked, and Vzreo possibly has a kinship 
here. 
Although I have never seen a specimen of the skeleton of the 
Bahama Honey Creeper (C. dahkamensis), the sole representative 
of the next family, the Ceredzda, still I think it is very probable 
that it should stand precisely where it has been placed in the 
1Just here I would invite the reader’s attention to the protuberance at the pos- 
terior extremity of either zygoma in figure 14; they are the anterior ends of the 
squamosal processes, and not the quadrates, as is the case in figure 1, while in figure 
18 a portion of both show. 
