486 CLASS AYES. 



the feather pointing backwards, and white. This species in- 

 habits Africa. M. Le Vaillant seems to think it more analo- 

 gous to the stares. Our figure is from a specimen which was 

 seen some years ago in Riddle's Museum, Leadenhall-street. 

 How numerous are the instances which our own collection of 

 drawings alone would establish of species which have been of 

 late described and named by foreign naturalists, which have 

 existed and been disregarded in our own country years back ! 



The shrike, also on the opposite side, is from the Museum 

 in Paris. It belongs to the crested division called Vanga. Its 

 general colour is black, but there is a large indented white 

 patch on the neck, and two white lunated spots, one above and 

 the other behind the eye, and the large wing-coverts are dark- 

 brown. 



Our figure, which Major Hamilton Smith refers to the 

 Lanius Emeria of Shaw, and the Great Bulbul of India, is of 

 one of these species which, in the present state of arrangement 

 of this countless order, it is very difiicult properly to allocate. 

 Mr. Swainson, in his excellent observation on the family of 

 the Laniadse, or Shrikes, proposes a new genus which would 

 include this bird. " In some species," he says, " of this family, 

 the bill is smaller, the nuchal bristles less conspicuous, and 

 those of the rictus much shorter. We are thus prepared for 

 the transition which here takes place into the genus Brachypus, 

 a name by which I propose to distinguish the short-legged 

 thrushes of Linnaeus and of modern writers. These birds are 

 exclusively confined to Africa and India, and are so strikingly 

 distinguished from the true thrushes, that it is somewhat 

 singular their peculiarities should not have been noticed long 

 ago. Their tarsi are remarkably short, their bills are weak, 

 and the nuchal bristles scarcely perceptible. In short, it is in 

 this genus that all the habits of the EdoUance gradually disap- 

 pear, and bring us to a small group of genuine thrushes found 

 in Africa, having lengthened tarsi, a graduated tail, and other 

 characters assimilating to the Meruladce.^' 



