38 Canon Tristram on the 



II. — On the Position of the Acrocephaline Genus Tatare, wi^A 

 Descriptio7is of two new Species of the Genus Acroceplialus. 

 By H. B. Tristram, F.R.S. 



(Plates I. & II.) 



In mauy cabinets a drawer-near the bottom, generally deeper 

 than most of the others, serves as a receptacle for various 

 odds and ends which have not found a place elsewhere, or 

 which, perhaps, from their shape and size, do not exactly fit 

 in symmetrically with the contents of the upper drawers. To 

 this Bluebeard^s closet are relegated all sorts of miscella- 

 neous curiosities. The owner is not very fond of examining 

 and sifting it. To do so gives a great deal of trouble, and, 

 besides, if its contents are to be reduced, may involve the 

 labour of rearranging some very pretty and undoubtedly 

 homogeneous series. 



Such a deep drawer in the practice of many jornithologists is 

 the family Timeliid^. The Timeliine group is, in fact, the 

 waste-paper basket of the puzzled systematist in the Passerine 

 birds. 



Our late dear frien^ Dr. Jerdon, on seeing a specimen 

 which perplexed him, used to say, " Oh ! put it among the 

 Timeliines ; some one will find a place for it there/^ And 

 certainly we do find a motley group relegated by one and 

 another of our systematists to this elastic family. What is 

 its definition ? I can only find (I) " Bill very similar to that of 

 the Thrushes and Warblers ; (2) wings rounded and short, 

 concave, so as to fit close to the body. (3) Birds generally of 

 limited migration " (Cat. Birds, iv. p. 7, & vi. p. 1). Is this a 

 suflficient diagnosis on which to found a family ? I trow not. 

 In the first place we may dismiss the last sentence, as we 

 can scarcely form genera, still less families, on a vague and 

 indefinite statement of life-habit that the bird is rather a 

 stay-at-home traveller. The first we dismiss, as there is 

 nothing very differentiating in a strong similarity to others. 

 There remains therefore only the distinction of a rounded 

 and short concave wing. Is this sufficient to mark off" a 



