478 SHUFELDT. [Vot. III. 
find no species that particularly resembles Chamea in its gen- 
eral appearance. A mounted specimen of the Bearded Tit, in 
the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, which was shown 
me by Mr. Robert Ridgway, has some external characters, both 
in general form and less so in color, that suggest to our mind 
an affinity with perhaps some such form as our Chame@a. Be- 
yond it, I found no species that appeared to offer any clue. 
However, as I said before, if we confine ourselves strictly to 
the United States avifauna in the comparisons we make with 
Chamea, 1 am strongly inclined to believe that in the entirety of 
its structure it will possess more parine rather than troglodytine 
characters in its organization. For instance, when we come to 
consider a// the external characters of Chamea, its habits, its 
nest and eggs, its habitat, and other matters bearing upon its 
history as a species, — taking all these, I say, into careful con- 
sideration, and without any regard to its internal structure, and 
even setting aside for the present its pterylography, I see its 
nearest allies in the various species of Psaltriparus, and sec- 
ondly, in some very few particulars, in the sub-genus Lopho- 
phanes among the Paride. In point of size and in the tufted 
feathers of the head it more nearly resembles the last-named ; 
while in habit, and in its rounded wings and long, graduated tail, 
and other points, it comes closer to species in the first-mentioned 
genus. Its resemblance to such a species as Auriparus flavt- 
ceps is, of course, very slight, and indeed that somewhat highly 
colored little bird is the most un-Tit-like-looking Tit that has 
been allowed a place among our United States Paride. 
In the subjoined TaBLE I contrast a few of the characters, 
etc., which characterize the subject of this memoir and such 
other species and genera as Psaltriparus, Auriparus flaviceps, 
Parus, Accentor, and Thryothorus. When Professor Newton 
sent me the specimens of Accentor modularis to compare with 
Chamea, he was, I think, more especially impressed with the 
fact that both the birds laid 4/we eggs, and in both the habits 
are not altogether unlike. As our examinations into the struc- 
ture of these forms progress, however, I am convinced that Ac- 
centor will prove to be a form very much like some of our larger 
American Warblers, such as for instance Geothlypis macgitlt- 
vrayt, or perhaps some other. I have examined, through the 
