TJMALIN^. 3 



and Shrike-babblers; 3rd, the Quaker and Wren-babblers; 4?7t, 

 the Creeper-thrushes ; 5th, the Laughing-thrushes ; 6th, the true 

 Babblers ; and lastly, the Reed-thrushes. 



Although the series, as here given, is not unbroken, I think 

 that it presents the affinities, inter se, of the various sections pretty 

 closely ; and the two most abnormal groups are here placed each, 

 on the confines of the family. With regard to their external relations, 

 I think, that whilst they perhaps join the Tits, and Liotricldnce, 

 through Suthora and the Alcippe group, on the other side, they are 

 undoubtedly connected to the Warblers through some of the Reed- 

 thrushes, such as Eurycercus and Schcenicola, and they join the 

 true Thrushes by the Mocking Thrushes of America. 



1st. The thick -billed, or Finch-thrushes, (Paradoxornithince, Gray.) 

 There has been considerable difference of opinion as to the 

 affinities of these very curious birds. Mr. Gould, who founded 

 the typical genus, contents himself with calling it a paradoxical 

 bird. Gray places the smaller forms with the Parince, and the 

 larger in the Fringillidte, next Phytotoma. Bonaparte, likewise, in 

 his Conspectus, classed them among the Finches, but subsequently 

 admitted their alliance with the Timalince. associatino- them 

 with Leiothrix, and thus formed the sub-farniry, Liotrichinae, 

 in which, moreover, he placed Conostoma. Hodgson considered the 

 larger ones nearly allied to Conostoma, an undoubted member of 

 this family ; and Blyth, whilst placing them in the Paridce (as 

 does Horsfield), also admitted the relationship to Conostoma ; and 

 he is now inclined to class them near the Timalince. Tickell does 

 not allow their affinities for this family, and calls them Fringillideous. 

 Putting aside the bill, the structure in every other respect is quite 

 Crateropocline. The strong legs and feet, the rounded wing, the 

 long graduated tail, the lax plumage, all agree with the characters 

 of this family ; whilst the bill, (on which so much stress is laid by 

 some, to the exclusion of every other feature,) as already noticed 

 varies greatly in this family ; and here it is reduced to a minimum 

 in shortness, and a maximum in depth and width. Conostoma, 

 Pyctoris, and some other genera, foreign to India, approach it in 

 these points, and make an easy transition to the more ordinary 

 form of beak. 



