PASSERINE. DENTIROSTRES. 



hooked, and the base furnished with stiff projecting 

 bristles, whose office is to assist in confining the 

 struggles of the active prey which they pursue. In 

 habit they resemble the Shrikes, as much as in form : 

 sitting on a post, or the summit of a bush, they sally 

 out upon passing winged insects, capture the prey by 

 a snap of the beak, and immediately return to the 

 same spot to eat it. In this remarkable peculiarity 

 of alighting to eat each capture, they differ from 

 the Swallows, which eat on the wing, and resemble 

 the Dragon-flies among insects. 



Through the chastely coloured and silky Chat- 

 terers (AmpeUs),* the brilliant tinted Tanagers 

 (Tanagra),~\- and Orioles (Oriolus\% and the singular 

 Lyre-bird (Moenura\ Lyra), remarkable for its size 

 and the developement of two ribbon-like feathers in 

 the tail, curved like the arms of a lyre, we come 

 to the great genus 



Motacilla,\\ the Warblers. 



The beak has now become straight and slender; 

 still, however, having in some species the flattened 

 form of the preceding genus, and in others the 

 curved point of the Shrikes. These also are fly- 

 catchers ; but instead of watching for their prey, 

 they seek it most industriously among the twigs and 



* *AfAvi*.os, ampelos, a vine. f Tava^a, tanagra, a brazen vessel. 



J 'QoiuV) horion, the Greek name of a bird. 



MJJVJJ, mene, the moon, and ol^ot, owra, the tail. 



H Motacitta, a Wagtail. (Lat.) 



