PASSERES. 7 



.The l)'n<i'nl<i, \\ilhout :i single except ion, possess serrat ions on 

 the margins of both mandibles for about a third ul' their length 

 from the tip. These serrations arc seldom visible \\ithout a lens 

 and a white background, hut with these aids they are plainly 



discernible. 



TbfA2audida differ from all the other . \erom\odi in having the 

 hinder part of the tarsus scsitelhited or divided transversely into 

 shields or scales. The ordinary bilaininuted (longitudinally ) and 

 smooth condition of the hind tarsus is shown in fig. 5, p. 18, the 

 tarsus of a (/row: the tarsus of a Lark will be figured in its 

 proper place. 



Having eliminated these (wo families, all (ho other Acromyodi 

 may he divided into two groups, the one possessing nine pri- 

 maries and the other ten. There is Borne difficulty in counting 

 the number of primaries, or quill-feathers attached to the inanus, 

 in the wing of a bird; but this can be overcome by the student 

 bearing in mind that, in the Acromyodi, there are ten primaries 

 when the first is rudimentary or notably small and nine when 

 the first is fully formed and reaches nearly, if not quite, to the 

 tip of the wing. 



The nine-primaried Passeres of India form three families which 

 are well differentiated. 



The ten-primaried Passeres constitute a large assemblage of: 

 birds. The Nectariniidce may be divided off by the tubular tongue 

 and the Ploceidce by the position of the nostrils ; but the remain- 

 ing birds form a group which is so homogeneous that it seems 

 impossible to divide them into families by structural characters. 



Under these circumstances my attention was drawn to the 

 characteristic plumage of the nestling, and I have found the use 

 of this character highly satisfactory. In the magnificent collection 

 of birds now contained in the British Museum young birds and 

 nestlings are sufficiently represented to render a classification on 

 this basis feasible. The young of some species, however, are 

 \\an1ing in the collection, and these species may not in every case 

 have been relegated to their proper families, but such birds 

 are few. 



The nestling plumage of the teu-primaried Passeres seems to be 

 of five types. In the first the nestling resembles the adult female ; 

 in the second the nestling resembles the adult female, but is more 

 brightly coloured and generally euffused with yellow ; in the third 

 the nestling is cross-barred ; in the fourth it is streaked, and in 

 the fifth and last mottled or squamated *. 



Before it is possible, therefore, to make use of the annexed scheme 

 of the classification of the families of the Passeres and to place a 

 bird in its proper family, a knowledge of the plumage of the nest- 



* Mr. Seebolmi, in the fifth volume of the British Museum Catalogue, made 

 use of the character of the plumage in the nestling to separate the Sylviincs 

 from Ilic I'urdhia, but restricted the application of this character to the more 

 typical genera. 



