GREENLETS. 



513 



remarks, is probably caused by the birds not having sufficiently powerful feet to grasp 

 their prey until torn in pieces by the sharply toothed bill. They therefore secure 

 their food on sharp thorns, and are able then, if it be a bird, to pluck it, or if an 

 insect or lizard or a mouse, to tear it to pieces. In places frequented by this 

 bold little bird (E. collurio) it is no uncommon thing to see in the bushes the rem- 

 nants of its meal of many meals; for the bird will regularly retire to one place for 

 its purpose. 



It matters very little, under the present state of affairs, whether we style our 

 American greenlets Vireonina? or VIBEONIDJE ; for, in spite of their olive color and 

 email size, they are apparently nearly allied to the shrikes. But they are especially 



\ 



FIG. 252. Sitta ccesia, nuthatch. 



interesting on account of being the only indigenous American forms of the whole 

 series, at least so far, and the only one of which no member ranges into any part of 

 the Old World. From a taxonomic point of view they are of considerable importance, 

 inasmuch as they prove the comparative insignificance of the presence or absence 

 of a first (tenth) primary as a means of subdividing the Passeroideae into groups of 

 higher value than the present so-called families, for of two species of greenlets, 

 so nearly allied that nobody ever dared separate them, even generically, we may 

 have one with a distinct spurious primary, while it has become quite invisible in 

 the other. 



The greenlets reach their highest development in the genus Cyclorhis, embracing 

 at least a dozen species from Central and South America, remarkable for their stout 

 build, and high, strong beaks. 

 VOL. iv. 33 



