$6 Sclater en tlic Systema Avium. 



New World. Old World. 



Oxyrhamphidae. Pittidoe. 



Tvrannidae. Philipittidse. 



Pipridae. 



( )otingidas. Eurylsemidae. 

 Phytotomidae. 



Of these the Eurylaemidae must he deemed, without doubt, the 

 most aberrant, on account of the non-freedom of the flexor halu- 

 cis, above alluded to, which is unique in the order of Passeres. 



The third suborder of Passeres, the Tracheophonae, distin- 

 guished by the peculiar structure of the syrinx, first described by 

 Johann Midler, is entirely confined to the New World. Accord- 

 ing to my view r s, the ^oo species which it comprehends should be 

 divided into three families, the last of which is peculiar among 

 all the Passeres in having a double notch at the posterior margin 

 of the sternum. They are: — 



( i. Dendrocolaptida . 

 Sterni postici fissura unica \ 



I 2. Formicamdce. 



Sterni postici fissuris duabus 3. Pteroptochidce. 



The fourth and last section of the Passeres, which I have pro- 

 posed to call Pseudoscines, contains only the anomalous Austra- 

 lian forms Atrichia and Meiuira. which are each fully worthy 

 of family rank. When some of the other obscure Australian 

 forms (such as Orthoiivx) have been further examined, it is very 

 possible that additions will have to be made to this series. 



2. Cypseli sive Magrochires. 



It is now universally admitted that the Cypseli . although not 

 Passerine, come near to that great Order in many particulars. 

 Nitzsch in 1829,* first constituted the group, to contain the Cyp- 

 selidre and Trochilidae, and called them •'Macrochires." from the 

 peculiar elongation of the bones of the manus. Sundevall. in 

 1S36, adopted the term, and used the same limits. In his • Ptery- 

 lographie,' Nitzsch reduced the rank of the Macrochires to a 

 family of his Picariae — a group to which, however, he expressly 

 states that he can assign no single peculiar pterylographic char- 

 acter. If we allow due value to palatal structure, we must keep 

 the Macrochires and Pici apart from the rest of the Picaria? of 



* 'Obs. de Avium arteria carotide communi.' Halae , 1829. 



