PRINIA FAMILIARIS. 



Prinia olivaceo-fiisca, abdomine flavo, gula pectore fasciisque duabus alarum albis, 

 rectricibus, intermediis subconcoloribus exceptis, fascia lata subterminali per- 

 fusca. 



Prinya, of the Javanese. 



Prinia familiaris, Horsf. Syst. Arrangement of Birds from Java, Linn. Trans. 



Vol. XIII. p. 165. 

 Familiar Creeper, Geti. Hist, of Birds by John Latham, 31. D. Second Edition, 1822, 



Vol IV. p. 264. n. 72. 



In proposing our Prinia familiaris as the type of a new genus in Ornithology, 

 I foresee the objection that its characters are not sufficiently prominent. They 

 are in some degree of a negative natvire. They consist chiefly in the absence of a 

 notch in the bill, in the naiTowness of the transverse dimensions of this organ, and in 

 a general external habit, which associates our bird with the Certhiadae. If these do 

 not afford it the rank of a distinct genus, our bird may be placed provisionally in 

 the genus Sylvia ; but the diversified character of the subjects wliich are at present 

 arranged in this assemblage of birds, has deterred me from adding to it any bird 

 which does not obviously belong to the true type of Sylvia. Our bird differs 

 as much from this type as Troglodytes and Regulus ; and the bill of the former, 

 which is entii-ely without a terminal notch, shews, with its other characters, the 

 existence of several distinct forms, which have hitherto been arranged under Sylvia, 

 without the necessary discrimination. 



The genus Prinia was first defined in the Systematic Catalogue of Javanese 

 Birds, which was printed in the Xlllth Volume of the Linnean Society's Trans- 

 actions. In the detail of its characters, the genus Pomatorhinus was chiefly kept 

 in view, and Prinia was stated to differ in the comparative straightness of the bill, 

 in the more gradual attenuation of this organ, and in its being destitute of the 

 horny covering to the nares. The examinations which I have again instituted, in 

 preparing to give a figure of Prinia in this Work, have confirmed my original con- 

 clusion, that it is more properly arranged among the Certhiadae than among the 

 Dentirostres. The affinity of our bird to Orthotomus, which in the Catalogue 

 above mentioned is placed next to it, affords a further illustration of its character, 

 and a guide in its natural arrangement. The straightness of the bill, which charac- 

 terizes our bird, occm'S in various other Certhiadee. The genus Opetiorynchos of 

 ISI. Temminck is an instance of this. In the Analyse du Systeme general d'Orni- 



