PARISOMIDjE. 207 



The family Parisomidae should include Dr. R. B. Sharpe's 

 " Group ix. Liotriches," Cat. B. M. vii. pp. 596-647, of which 

 he writes: "The Hill Tits, as these birds are popularly 

 called, are universally recognised by writers ou Indian orni- 

 thology as representing a distinct family of birds. I believe, 

 however, that they are more correctly placed as aberrant 

 Timeliine forms, showing great affinities with the Paridse, the 

 true Timeliidse, and even with the Wrens (Troglodytidx) ; in 

 a less degree they are also allied to the Flycatchers." Both 

 Dr. Sharpe's and my name for this group are taken from 

 Swainson's genera Parisoma and Leiothrix, Faun. Bor-Amer. 

 B. p. 490 (1831), showing that Swainson recognised the close 

 affinities which exist between these two genera, so I have 

 selected the first of them for the family title. 



For a key to the genera of this family I may refer my 

 readers to Cat. B. M. vii. p. 596, as I place the few Ethiopian 

 species in Parisoma and Alcippe, two nearly allied genera, 

 so need not here enter further into the relationship of the 

 other species, which are eastern forms, mostly inhabiting the 

 Himalayas. 



I followed Dr. Sharpe in placing Alcippe in the family 

 Timeliidce, B. Afr. I. p. 66; but when I discovered that 

 Alcippe Jcilimensis was the same species as Drymophila 

 abyssinica, Riipp., I compared the type of Lioptilus and 

 Alcippe and found them not to be generically distinct and 

 very nearly allied to Parisoma. 



The next two species on my list of the members of 

 the genus " Lioptilus," B. Afr. p. 92, : Parisoma olivascens, 

 Cass., and Muscicapa chocolatina, Riipp., belong to the 

 Muscicajiidx. Two other birds, Sylvia lugens, Riipp., and its 

 near ally Parisoma jacksoni, Sharpe, I place in the Sylviidse 

 close to Sylvia blanfordi, Seebohm ; they differ from Parisoma 

 in having the nostrils exposed. In the British Museum there 



