203 



these birds (which, I think, are more correctly denominated " Pte- 

 rcptochuUe from the oldest genus) seem to me to form a division 

 rather parallel than subordinate to the family Formteariida, and 



therefore I have not included them in this synopsis. 



But alter this exception, there appears to remain a very natural 

 group of birds, found only, as is usually the case wit h natural groups, 

 within a limited geographical area, and of which the different mem- 

 bers, although so varied in form as to be with difficulty comprehended 

 in very precise family characters, yet present such an amount of 

 coherence inter $e, that it is impossible to remove any portion of 

 them from the series without doing violence to their obviously 

 natural arfinities. For these birds I employ, following Mr. Gray's 

 example, the name " Formicariidte," derived from FormieariuB — 

 Hoildaert's Latinized term for Buffon's Fourmillier, and therefore to 

 be preferred to "Myiotherida" and other derivatives of subse- 

 quently given appellations of the same genus. 



"This family," says M. D'Orbigny, who, as I have already ob- 

 served, takes the same view of its limits as is here adopted, " appears 

 to us the most natural possible ; for it contains only birds who live, 

 so to say, together in the same localities. Very different from the 

 Shrikes of the Old World, which keep upon the outside of the trees, 

 or at least of the bushes ; and from the Cyclorhiaes and Vireones, 

 which resemble them in habits, — these are all bush-birds par excel- 

 lence, and inhabit the densest parts of the thorns and thickets. In 

 comparing them with the Shrikes (Lanii) we find that the Thamno- 

 phili resemble them in their hooked and toothed bill, and their long 

 and graduated tail, but that they differ essentially in the shortness 

 of their rounded wings, which causes them to be sedentary and not 

 birds of travel, and in their long and slender tarsi and toes, which 

 connect them with the purely terrestrial species — that is, with the 

 Formicarians, to which they are intimately united by insensible pas- 

 Bages. In fact, in passing from Thamnopkilus, with its strong beak, 

 id Formicivora, one funis throughout the same habits and the same 

 way of life." "Again," says the same experienced observer, "we 

 repeat that all the species of this family, independently of their 

 being of the same habits, have a fades which unites them together. 

 '1 'heir most salient traits are the long slender tarsi and toes, the ex- 

 terior toe united to the middle at its base, the moderate claws, the 

 line elongated feathering of the rump, and in particular the spots of 

 white which occupy the base of the interscapularies in the male;, of 

 nearly all the species." It would be easy to produce other testi- 

 mony — such as that of Prince Max of Ncuwied, Hurmcistcr, &C., in 

 fact, of every observer who has seen these birds in their native wilds, 

 as to the general resemblance of their habits; ami this is, without 

 doubt, a strong argument in favour of their constituting a natural 

 and independent family. And their structure, when aeeuratcly 

 examined, will be found to be very different from that of the Lanuda, 



TurduUe, and MuscicapuUe of the Old World, a g which three 



families the component genera "i this group are unnaturally distri- 

 buted by man) B3 aU mauats. 



