INSESSORES. MERULID^. 155 



ter being finely margined with white. Greater quills 

 having their bases white. Lower part of the back deep 

 grey. Rump and upper tail-coverts white. Chin, 

 throat, and under plumage, white, sHghtly tinged with 

 yellow. Tail graduated ; the outer feather white, with 

 a large black square bar upon its inner web ; the next 

 feather having its basal part and tip white, and the re- 

 maining portion black ; the other feathers being black, 

 shewing indistinct bars of a deeper shade. Legs having 

 the tarsi seven-eighths of an inch long ; claws sharp, 

 curved, and channelled. Total length of bird exceeding 

 seven inches. 

 The female has the orange of the head and hind part of Female. 

 the neck less pure in tint ; and slightly rayed with lines 

 of a deeper shade. The dark parts of her plumage are 

 also of a browner tinge, and the white upon the scapu- 

 lars rather sullied. The lower parts are also rayed with 

 lines of pale brown. 



Family III. MERULID^. 



The connection between the Laniadae and the Merulidae, 

 the second typical family of the Dentirostres, is reciprocally 

 effected by various forms belonging to the subdivisions of 

 each, which, mutually losing some peculiar characteristics of 

 the typical representatives of their own family, assume in a 

 greater or less degree those belonging to the other. Thus 

 the Short-legged Thrushes (forming Swainson's subfamily 

 Brachypodina) become nearly allied to the subfamily Lani- 

 ana, by the intervention of the genus Trichopliorus ; and also 

 the Ant Thrushes of the subfamily Myoitherina to certain 

 species of the smaller Thamnophili, or Bush-Shrikes of Ame- 

 rica. 



Instead of the strong, short, dentated bill, that characte- 

 rizes the typical Lanii, the true Thrushes have it longer and 



