I 



Classification of Birds. 455 



palm-tlirush, genus Dulus, Vieil. This beautiful group is distin- 

 guished by the prevailing yellow colour of its typical species, as ex- 

 emplified in Oriolus galbula, &c. In it we find the regent 

 oriole, Sericulus chrysocephcdus, Sw. and the Oriolus paradiseus, 

 Temm., as well as the lovely Irena puella of Horsf. By the re- 

 gent bird, distinguished from its congeners by the length of the 

 tarsi, the way is prepared for a direct passage to the next sub-family, 

 Crateropodince, a group distinguished from the other thrushes by 

 their long and powerful legs and feet, their short wings, and, gene- 

 rally speaking, sombre plumage. Of this group more requires to be 

 known before its typical forms can be precisely defined, but the 

 near approach of some of its members to the Brachypodijice tends 

 to prove the circular disposition of the three aberrant groups. Of 

 the true thrushes or Merulinae, which exhibit the typical perfection 

 of the >vhole family of the Merulidse, he points out the genera Me- 

 rula, Ray. ; Orpheus, Sw. ; Petrocincla, Vig. ; and Chcelops, Sw. 

 as four of the prominent groups. Like other pre-eminently typical 

 forms, the true thrushes (Merula) are found in all parts of the 

 world, while the mocking-thrushes f Orpheus, J which lead to the 

 Crateropodince, are confined to the American Continent, By the 

 rock-thrushes (Petrocincla ) he finds a passage through Myopho- 

 nus and other forms to the sub-family Myiolherince. In this 

 division, which represents the sub-typical or dentirostral type of the 

 family, we have the beautiful genus Pitta distinguished by the 

 short tails and elongated legs of its members, with a richly varied 

 plumage, in which blue, red, and brown predominate. Myolhera, 

 111. is a third genus restricted to tropical America, and in its own 

 circle analogous to the Thamnophilinoe and Budytes, Cuv. answer- 

 ing to our wagtails as typical forms, nearly allied to which are 

 the members of the party-coloured genus Enicurus, Temm. an In- 

 dian group, succeeded by Anthus, Bechst., which, placed as it 

 were at the extremity of the Dentirostres, leads immediately to 

 the family Alaudince in the circle of the Conirostres. A fourth 

 form, intermediate, as he thinks, between Anthus and Motacilla, 

 is his Lessonia erythronotos, a Chilian bird, but of whose affinities 

 we have not ourselves had an opportunity of judging. He enters 

 the next sub-family Parlance by the Seiurus auricapillus (golden 

 crowned thrush of the earlier writers,) considered as a subgenus of 

 Accentor, Bechst. the members of which, he remarks, " stand at the 

 confines of that group which contains the most scansorial warblers 

 of the family," and which station must be conceded to Parus, and 

 its nearly allied congeners. The other groups which complete the 



