2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 89 



the peculiar painted snipe are recognized as a distinct family, Rostra- 

 tulidae, from anatomical peculiarities.' The Psittacif ormes and Cuculi- 

 formes have been transposed in order to allow the parrots to stand 

 nearer the pigeons. 



The number of families and their arrangement in the great order 

 Passerif ormes is far from satisfactory. The bower birds (formerly 

 Ptilinorhynchidae) are united with the Paradiseidae, as here again 

 alleged characters overlap. The curious parrot-bills and their allies 

 merit recognition as a distinct family Paradoxornithidae to stand near 

 the Paridae. Mayr has shown that Paramythia (formerly Paramy- 

 thiidae) of New Guinea belongs in the Dicaeidae. The fork-tails 

 (formerly Enicuridae) do not seem separable from the Turdidae, 

 Aerocharis (formerly Aerocharidae), the curious helmet-bird of 

 Madagascar, is placed in the Vangidae, and the glossy starlings 

 (formerly Graculidae) are united with the Sturnidae, as no definite 

 lines of difference appear to separate them. 



Arrangement of the various passeriform families in linear se- 

 quence, particularly in the suborder Passeres, or song birds, is a 

 matter of difficulty, since the problem is one of three-dimensional 

 relationship that must be represented in a single column. Obviously, 

 the treatment in some instances must be arbitrary and subject there- 

 fore to individual opinion. Without going too deeply into the matter, 

 it has been suggested that such specialized families of the fringilline 

 series as the Coerebidae and Icteridae should come at the end of the 

 list in place of the Fringillidae. In considering the evolution of this 

 assemblage, it appears to me that the more specialized families have 

 been derived by modification from the Fringillidae, while the latter 

 family has retained and carried along more general characters from 

 which further specialization may take place, if with civilized man's 

 disturbance of natural conditions on our Earth continuation of evo- 

 lution among birds is possible. The Coerebidae and Icteridae, to take 

 these as examples, are specialized branches that are assumed now 

 to be more or less static and fixed and therefore should stand at the 

 side. The Fringillidae, representing the central group through which 

 further progress may be expected, should be placed as the terminus 

 of the central stem at the end. 



One change in terminology incorporated in the present list has 

 been the use of the suffix -oidea to designate superfamily names. In 

 the preparation of the classification for the official Checklist of the 



See Lowe, P. R., Ibis, 1931, pp. 503, 507-531. 



