SUBCLAMATORES—S UGA R-BIRD g21 
SUBCLAMATORES, the name proposed in 1893 (Gadow, 
Thier-reich, Vogel, System. Th. pp. 273-276) for a division of 
PASSERES formed by the Family Lurylemidx (BROADBILL, p. 57). 
SUBOSCINES, proposed, like the last (tom. cit. pp. 272, 277, 
278), in place of PSEUDOSCINES (p. 743). 
SUGAR-BIRD, the English name commonly given in the West 
India Islands to the various members of the genus Certhiola,} 
generally regarded as belonging to the Family Cwrebide (cf. Gurt- 
GUIT, p.401),? from their habit of frequenting the curing-houses where 
sugar is kept, apparently attracted thither by the swarms of flies. 
These little birds on account of their pretty plumage and their 
familiarity are usually favourites. They often come into dwelling- 
houses, where they preserve great coolness, hopping gravely from 
one piece of furniture to another and carefully exploring the 
surrounding objects with intent to find a spider or insect. In their 
figure and motions they remind a northern naturalist of a NUTHATCH 
(p. 647), while their coloration—black, yellow, olive, grey and white 
—recalls to hima Tirmousg. They generally keep in pairs and build 
a domed but untidy nest, laying therein three eggs, white blotched 
with rusty-red. Apart from all this the genus presents some points 
of great interest. Mr. Sclater (Cat. Bb. Br. Mus. xi. pp. 36-47) 
recognizes 18 “species,” therein following Mr. Ridgway (Proc. U. 8. 
Nat. Mus. 1885, pp. 25-30), of which 3 are continental with a joint 
range extending from southern Mexico to Peru, Bolivia and south- 
eastern Brazil, while the remaining 15 are peculiar to certain of the 
Antilles,? and several of them to one island only. Thus C. cabvti is 
limited, so far as is known, to Cozumel (off Yucatan), C. tricolor to 
Old Providence, C. flaveola (the type of the genus) to Jamaica, and 
so on, while islands that are in sight of one another are often 
inhabited by different “species.” Further research is required ; 
but even now the genus furnishes an excellent example of the 
effect of isolation in breaking up an original form, while there is 
comparatively little differentiation among the individuals which 
inhabit a large and continuous area. The non-appearance of this 
genus in Cuba is very remarkable. 
1 American ornithologists have lately taken to use the name Cwxreba (or Cereba, 
as they and others spell it) in place of Certhiola, but Mr. Sclater (Zbis, 1893, p. 
247) successfully defends the older practice. 
2 The Guitguit of Hernandez (Rer. Medic. N. Hisp. Thes. p. 56), a name said 
by him to be of native origin, can hardly be determined, though thought by 
Montbeillard (Hist. Nat. Ots. v. p. 529) to be what is now known as Cereba cxrulea, 
but that of later writers is C. cyanea. The name is probably from the bird’s 
note, like Quit (p. 761), applied in Jamaica to several species. 
3 More recently, in 1889, Mr. Cory (Birds of the West Indies, pp. 61-67) 
admitted only twelve species as Antillean. 
