178 INSESSORES. SYLVIAD^E. 



oil-green, with the tips of all the feathers, except the two 

 middle ones, yellowish-white. 

 The young birds are similar to the female. 



FAMILY IV. SYLVIAD^E. 



We now enter upon the family of Sylviadse or Warblers, 

 that assemblage of the lesser species, so eminently distin- 

 guished for gracile and elegant form, and for a (compara- 

 tively) delicate structure of bill. By LINN^US the greater 

 portion of the birds of this family then known were arranged 

 under the genus Motacilla, which LATHAM afterwards di- 

 vided, restricting Motacilla to the Wagtails generally so 

 called, and establishing his genus Sylvia for the reception of 

 the other slender-billed birds. This latter genus then be- 

 came the recipient of almost every bird of a certain size and 

 possessing a slender bill, without regard to the various dis- 

 criminating shades of character, both in form and habits, 

 which are found to exist, and separate the various species 

 into groups of different value and extent. This indiscrimi- 

 nate association of such a variety of forms under one generic 

 head, involved, as might be expected, the whole series in the 

 greatest confusion ; and it was only from the labours of 

 VIGORS, SWAINSON,* and other eminent ornithologists, who 

 pursued the analytic method, and strictly investigated the 

 direct affinities of the various species contained in this genus, 

 as well as their bearings with regard to other tribes and fa- 

 milies, that the importance of their station in the natural ar- 

 rangement, became apparent ; and that the necessity of their 

 separation into groups of different value was generally ad- 

 mitted. 



Like the other families of the Insessores, that of Sylviadas 



* I must here refer my readers to Mr SWAIN SON'S observations upon 

 the natural arrangement, &c. of the Sylviadat, contained in the 2d vol. of 

 the " Northern Zoology," as the limits of this work will not admit of my 

 entering into the necessary detail. 



