GRYLLIVORA Saularis. 

 Dial Bird. 



Family Sylviadae. Sub Family Saxicolinae. 



Generic Character. 



Bill strong, compressed, the culmen gradually curved from the 

 base, the tip strongly notched : the margins inflexed, the 

 rictus bearded. Tarsi elevated, robust. IVings rounded, 

 the 3, 4, 5 and 6th quills nearly equal, lesser quills nearly all 

 of equal length. Tai/ graduated; the feathers broad. 2Vo6. 



Specific Character. 



Glossy blue-block, body beneath, and a broad longitudinal band in 

 the middle of the icing, pure white: tail graduated, the 

 three middle feathers black and nearly equal, the three outer 

 suddenly diminishing, and pure tvhite. 



Gracula Saularis. Auctorum. 



Naturalists, until of late, were accustomed to pay so little 

 regard to the habits and manners of birds, that of some of 

 the most common species, we know as little now, as we did 

 a century ago. We are in this predicament with the species 

 before us, called the Dial Bird by Albin, whose vague and 

 very questionable account of its manners, has been copied 

 by every succeeding writer. We believe that under the 

 name of Gracula Saularis, two, if not three species are 

 confounded. We doubt Le Vaillants Cadran (Ois. d'Af. 

 pi. 109) being the same as our bird : he distinctly describes 

 and figures the female as rufous. Ours, (so labelled), is 

 grey. To us, its natural affinity with the Saxicolae appears 

 almost unquestionable, but on this point we shall dwell more 

 at length in another place. The curious analogy between 

 this bird and Petroica bicolor, has already been mentioned : 

 the plumage of both are precisely alike. It is thus that 

 Nature, ever unfolding: some new link of her interminable 

 chain of relations, impresses on the mind the sublimity of 

 that plan, which omnipotence alone can fully comprehend. 



