G6 MERULID^E. 



This very interesting little bird has long been 

 a stumbling block to systematists. It has been 

 handed about from one genus to another, and 

 even when a name has been allotted to itself, and 

 one or two others, it still gives uneasiness, and 

 has scarcely yet received a family mansion, where 

 it can dwell in order undisturbed ; and although 

 our opinion of its proper station may be formed, 

 we cannot expect, where there is a complication 

 of characters, that all our ornithologists will 

 coincide with it. We do think, however, that it 

 will maintain its place among the Myotherinse, 

 where nearly all our great advocates of a natural 

 system of affinities have arranged it ; and by 

 means of foreign genera the gradation of form 

 can be beautifully traced. The genus consists of 

 only three well authenticated species, and may 

 be thus characterized, 



CINCLUS. Generic Characters. Bill slender 

 obsoletely notched, nostrils naked, forehead 

 small and narrow ; wings- rather short and 

 rounded, first quill nearly spurious, second, 

 third, and fourth nearly equal ; tail rather 

 short, even ; feet large and strong, lateral 

 toes equal, tarsal scales entire. C. aquaticus. 



