General Remarks on the Classification of the Passerines. 47 



as a rule are also those with a simple larynx, are only united among themselves, and 

 ought not to be mixed up with the Singing Birds who have tarsal scutes ; in these 

 comparisons Ampelis, Psark, Tyrannus, Dasycephala, Ujnijja, and others, are separated 

 from their true allies, and distributed among the quite different Singing Birds. The 

 same holds for the Tracheophones, Thamnopkilus, Myiothera, Conopophaga, Chamaeza, Scy- 

 talopius, Furnarms, Atiahates, Tinactor, Xenops, Spiallaxis, Dendrocolapites, and others, whose 

 forms of bill are in extreme cases, as TliamnopJillus and Dendrocolaptes, very different, 

 but pass into one another by imperceptible steps. Every one now sees that neither 

 the Shrikes, nor the Fly-catchers, nor the Thrushes, nor the Wrens, nor the Tree-climbers 

 are their allies, or the allies of any one of these genera ; and that the Tracheojjhones must 

 be brought together into one great family. Whoever has once examined the tongues 

 of Ujiupa, Buceros, and Alcedo will see that these three genera belong together to one 

 family {Lipoglossi Nitzsch), although their beaks have very different forms, and' this 

 is a further reason for thinking that a tribe of Temdrostres, which brings together 

 Cert/da, Furnarius, Beiidrocoluptes, and Vpupa, would be just as artificial and unnatural 

 as any of those families, which till the latest times, have been formed by systematists, 

 without the assistance of anatomy. 



Hence it may be concluded that every family of Passerines should only include 

 birds with a similar larynx. We should not be able to bring together Malaconotus 

 and Tliamnopldlus, Bomli/cilla and Ampelis, 3Iuscicapa and Tyrannus, Hirundo and Cypselm, 

 Cinclus &nA Myiothera, Pans and Setopliaga, or Cofviis and Ceplialoptents, not to mention many 

 other similar misconceptions, which are found in nearly every family of the systematist- 



How far the orders of Passerines can be formed, according to the structure of their 

 vocal organ, is another question. If we divide the Passerines, including the Scansores, 

 according to tlie structure of their vocal organs, avoiding the errors introduced bj- 

 Nitzsch, and by the aid of the knowledge lately obtained, into Oscines and Picarii, the 

 two divisions would probably contain the following families : 



I. Oscines. 



Lanidae. Paradiseidae. 



MuscicapAdae. Fringillidae. 



Turdidae. Tanagridae. 



Sturnidae. Sylvidae. 



CincUdae. Hirundinidae. 



Melipliagidae. Alaudidae. 



Corvidae. Certlddae. 



