604 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



south Russia, Persia, and Turkestan, wandering southward in winter into Africa. It 

 is a very shy and skulking bird, and may therefore easily be overlooked. 



Our last picture of sylviine S]tecifs represents birds of wliich allied species also 

 occur in this country. The u]ij)er figure is a Siljerian willow-warbler, n'hited to 

 JVii/l/iipseiistes horcaUs, a comjiarativcly recent immigrant into Alaska, where a small 

 breeding colony has settled, the members of which in fall migrate southward through 

 eastern Asia. In general aspect the willow-warblers resemble the kinglets (I{egulin:e), 

 which are easily distinguished by their yellow and red — nearly tyrannine — crown- 

 patches, and by having booted tarsi. Their exact position is still a matter of some 



Fig. IMS. — J'hyllopseuntfs sujH.ivtli>>su 



yeIl(>w-lir<MvtMl wilk>\v-\v:irl»U'r ^upper figure) ; Jinjutus i(/uicapillus, fire- 

 crest ; li. rei/uliut, goUI-crcst. 



uncertainty, and many authors refer thetn to the tits. The lower figure to the left is 

 the European fire-crest (Jiefftilns i[/iiiaij>i'l/uii), in a cut indistinguishable from our 

 North American Ji. salnijui. The gold-crest {Ji. ref/iilns) is the other Eur()])ean sjiecies. 

 It was e\ idciitly a step towards a natural arrangement when lately the dijipcrs 

 and the mocking-birds were removed from tlie thrushes and associated more or less 

 intimately with the wrens; and probably the (Vuimrv.a sliould not be kept outside of 

 this assemblage. I may also remark here, as we have just Hnislicil tlii' Sylviida- with- 

 out menlioiiiiig the North American I'oliojjtilinie, that I regard the latter as closely 

 allied ti. ihc mocking-birds, and that I consequently refer them to the fainily Munid^e. 

 It seems advis.able for the present to retain the conventional family names. 



