1022 WARBLER 
forms of Aquatic Warblers are far too numerous to be here 
mentioned. 
It seems expedient to recognize a subfamily Drymeciny, which 
may include some 15 genera and nearly 200 species; but about its 
composition and limits much doubt cannot fail to be entertained. 
If its existence be acknowledged, the remarkable genera Orthotomus 
(TAILOR-BIRD) and Cisticola (FANTAIL) may be fairly admitted as 
belonging to it; but of them enough has been said (pp. 238, 942) 
and it is obviously impossible to dwell here on the rest. 
In the group Drymecinx is placed by some authors the Australian 
genus Malurus, to which belong the birds aptly named as “ SUPERB 
WARBLERS,” since in beauty they surpass any others of their 
presumed allies. Part of the plumage of the cocks in breeding- 
dress is generally some shade of intense blue, and so glossy as to 
resemble enamel, while black, white, chestnut or scarlet, as well as 
green and lilac, are also present in one species or another, so as to 
heighten the effect. But, as already stated, there are systematists who 
would raise this genus, which contains some 15 species, to the rank 
of a distinct Family, though on what grounds it is as yet hard to say. 
Of the other subfamilies, Savicolinw, Sylviine and Phylloscopine 
will be conveniently treated under WHEATEAR, WHITETHROAT and 
WILLOW-WREN, while the Ruticilline have been already mentioned 
under NIGHTINGALE, REDBREAST and REDSTART, and the Accen- 
torine under HEDGE-SPARROW (p. 895).} 
II. The birds known as ‘“ AMERICAN WARBLERS,” forming what 
has now been long recognized as a distinct Family,? Mniotiltide, 
remain for consideration. They possess but nine instead of ten 
primaries, and are peculiar to the New World. More than 130 
species have been described, and these have been grouped in 20 
genera or more, of which members of all but three are at least 
summer visitants to North America. As a whole they are 
much more brightly coloured than the Sylviide (Malurus, if it 
belongs to them, always excepted); for, though the particular 
genus Mniotilta (from which, as the fortune of nomenclature will 
have it, the Family takes its right name)*® is one of the most 
1 It is to be hoped that before long some competent ornithologist will take on 
himself the task, necessary if toilsome and perhaps ungrateful, of revising the 
work that has lately been done in regard to these birds and the Thrushes, and, 
setting aside all preconceived notions, fixing the limits of the Family or Families, 
if Families they be, and at the same time adjust the relations of the hitherto 
indefinite group of Timelias. : 
2? Some American authors have called the Family ‘‘ Wood-Warblers”, an 
inappropriate name, and inconvenient since it has long since been specialized 
in England. 
% By some writers the Family is called Sylvicolidx, a practice which contra- 
venes ordinary usage, since the name SyZvicola was preoccupied in conchology. 
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