512 PANURID^. 



its characters undefined. The position of this bird has for 

 some years been a moot point in ornithology, and though 

 the best authorities are still greatly divided thereon, most of 

 them agree in holding it to have no near affinity to the genus 

 Parus and its allies, not even enough to justify its being kept 

 in the family Paridce. Its habits and structure alike shew 

 its divergence from any member of that group, while the 

 difference of opinion existing among systematic writers, to 

 be presently mentioned, proves the difficulty of referring it 

 with certainty to any other family which has been estab- 

 lished. Panurus seems to be a perfectly distinct form, with 

 no very near relations, and under these circumstances and 

 after long consideration the Editor thinks that it must be 

 regarded as the representative of a separate family to which 

 he would apply the name Panuridte*. At the same time he 

 leaves the bird in the same place as it has hitherto occupied 

 in this work, not because he is satisfied therewith, but 

 because he cannot suggest a position for it in which he has 

 any great confidence, and he is averse to any change without 

 feeling assured of its expediency. 



This species, the only one of the genus t, was first 

 discovered by Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich, who sent a 

 picture of it to Ray as mentioned by him, in a small book 

 published some two hundred years ago, as follows: "A 

 little Bird of a tawney colour on the back, and a blew head, 

 yellow bill, black legs, shot in an Osiar yard, called by Sr. 

 Tho. for distinction sake sllerella" \. Eay seems however 

 to have had no further information about it, and in his 



* M. des Murs, in 1860, recognized such a family which he called Panurince 

 (Ool. Orn., p. 508.) 



t Bonaparte thought he had recognized a second species which he called 

 Calamophilus sibiricus (Comptes Rendus, 1856, p. 414), butDrs. Baldamus and 

 Blasius having examined the type-specimens in Major KirchhofFs collection say 

 (Naumann's Deutschl. Vog. xiii. Nachtr. p. 156) that it was founded on the 

 young of the common European species. 



J A Collection of English Words Not Generally used, &c. With Catalogues of 

 English Birds and Fishes : &c. By John Ray.' (London : 1674.) Attention was first 

 called to this passage, which occurs in the unpaged preface or notice "To the 

 Reader", by Mr. J. H. Gurney, junior. There cannot be a doubt of its reference to 

 this species. 



