CHAP. XVIIL] BIRDS. 257 



This immense family, comprising all the birds usually known 

 as " warblers," is, as here constituted, of almost universal distri- 

 bution. Yet it is so numerous and preponderant over the whole 

 Eastern Hemisphere, that it may be well termed an Old- World 

 group ; only two undoubted genera with very few species belong- 

 ing to the Nearctic region, while two or three others whose posi- 

 tion is somewhat doubtful, are found in California and the 

 Neotropical region. 



Canon Tristram, who has paid great attention to this difficult 

 group, has kindly communicated to me a MS8. arrangement of 

 the genera and species, which, with a very few additions and 

 alterations, I implicitly follow. He divides the Sylviidse into 

 seven sub-families, as follows : 



1. Drymoecinse (15 genera 194 sp.), confined to the Old World 

 and Australia, and especially abundant in the three Tropical 

 regions. 2. Calamoherpinse (11 genera, 75 sp.), has the same 

 general distribution as the last, but is scarce in the Australian and 

 abundant in the Palsearctic region ; 3. Phylloscopinse (11 genera, 

 139 sp.), has the same distribution as the entire family, but is 

 most abundant in the Oriental and Palsearctic regions. 4. Syl- 

 viinse (6 genera, 33 sp.), most abundant in the Palsearctic region, 

 very scarce in the Australian and Oriental regions, absent from 

 America. 5. Kuticillinse (10 genera, 50 sp.); entirely absent from 

 America and Australia ; abounds in the Oriental and Palaearctic 

 regions. 6. Saxicolinse (12 genera, 126 sp.), absent from America 

 (except the extreme north-west), abundant in the Oriental region 

 and moderately so in the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, and Australian. 7. 

 Accentorinse (6 genera, 21 sp.), absent from the Ethiopian region 

 and South America, most abundant in Australia, one small genus 

 (Sialia), in North America. 



The distribution of the several genera arranged under these 

 sub-families, is as follows : 



1. DRYMCECIN^. ( 736 ) Orthotomm (13 sp.), all the Oriental 

 region; ( 737 ) Prinia (11 sp.), all the Oriental region; ( 738 74 742 

 746 ) Drymctccu (83- sp.), Ethiopian and Oriental regions, most 

 abundant in the former ; ( 743 to 745 attd 749 to 752 ) Cisticola (32 sp.), 

 Ethiopian and Oriental regions, with South Europe, China. 



