DENTIROSTllES. 397- 



feed on small hard seeds or grain. Tliey all construct nests of 

 various degrees of neatness, and most of them lay coloured eggs.r 

 They are all of small or moderate size. 



In their anatomy they closely resemble one another, as well 

 as the last and the succeeding tribes. The sternum has only one 

 emargination posteriorly, varying somewhat in size, and occasion- 

 ally reduced to a foramen ; the furcula long, slender, and having 

 a compressed vertical appendage ; the manubrial and costal pro-, 

 cesses are both prolonged ; the brain is large ; the lower larynx 

 is complicated, and acted on by four pairs of muscles ; the stomach 

 is more or less muscular ; the intestines are long, with two minute 

 casca, but both of these last varying somewhat in different 

 families. 



They are all able to inflect the voice, though some of them do 

 so rarely, or not at all ; and our finest singing birds belong to 

 the present tribe. The young of all are hatched naked, and they 

 moult their nestling plumage in the first year, with the exception 

 of the remiges and rectrices. With few exceptions, viz., the 

 Australian Maluri, and some of the small Flycatchers, the Bhringa, 

 and certain of the Pipits and Wagtails, none have a distinct vernal 

 moult ; at least they do not change their colours as many of the 

 last and as several of the succeeding tribe do. As a general 

 rule, the birds of this tribe are less gregarious than those of the 

 Conirostral group. 



The division of this tribe into fainilies, and their limitations, 

 is attended with much difficulty, owing to their intimate relations 

 •with each other. Most English ornithologists divide them into the 

 following families, — Shrikes, Thrushes, Flycatchers, Warblers, 

 and Fruit-eaters ; and I see no reason for changing these, although, 

 in several cases, 1 differ from Gray, Horsfield, and others, with regard 

 to the contents and extent of some of the families. Many ornitholo- 

 gists, at the present day, prefer keeping the various groups apart, 

 without attempting to bring them together into large divisions ; but, 

 as I have previously stated, I prefer, in all cases, to endeavour 

 to bring them into groups of successively increasing value. The 

 fmilies adopted in the present work, and their succession, are as 

 follow : — 



