Vil OSCINES 495 
certainly not laid down, and it would be hard to give a good 
reason either for admitting or refusing to admit into it genera 
like Liothrix or Chamaea, while the puzzle is still greater in 
regard to some forms from Australia and New Zealand. 
The two latest writers on the subject, Dr. Gadow and Pro- 
fessor Newton, abstain from offering any scheme of Classification of 
the Oscines, the latter limiting himself to the declaration, already 
expressed by the late W. K. Parker, that the Corvidae should 
stand as the highest group. As regards their predecessors it will be 
enough here to enumerate the “ Families” in the order in which 
they were arranged by Dr. Stejneger’ in 1885, and Dr. Sharpe? 
in 1891; the scheme of the last author, however, being reversed 
to harmonize with the plan of the present volume, in which the 
lower groups are assigned priority. The order of Dr. Stejneger, 
which is based on both anatomy and morphology, is that subse- 
quently followed, but his Families are not invariably adhered to. 
Dr. STEJNEGER. 
Alaudidae. 
Motacillidae. 
[H]Enicuridae. 
Timaliidae. 
Leiotrichidae. 
Muscicapidae. 
Turdidae. 
Cinclidae. 
Troglodytidae. 
Chamaeidae ? 
Mimidae ? 
Hirundinidae. 
Campephagidae. 
Dicruridae. 
Ampelidae. 
Artamidae ? 
Lanividae. 
Vireonidae ? 
Paridae. 
Oriolidae. 
Paradiseidae. 
Corvidae. 
Sturnidae. 
Dr SHARPE. 
Hirundinidae. 
Muscicapidae. 
Campophagidae. 
Pycnonotidae 
Timeliidae. 
Mim idae, 
Troglodytidae. 
Cinclidae. 
Turdidae. 
Sylvvidae. 
Vireonidae. 
A mpelidae. 
Artamidae. 
Lanividae. 
Requlidae. 
Paridae. 
Zosteropidae. 
TIicaeidae. 
Nectariniidae. 
Meliphagidae. 
Certhiidae. 
Mniotiltidae. 
Motacillidae. 
Alaudidae. 
Fringillidae. 
Coerebidae. 
1 Stejneger, Standard Natural History, iv. 1885. 
* Sharpe, 4 Review of Recent Attempts to Classify Birds, 1891 (2nd Ornith 
. Congress), 
