VIEEONID^, VIIIEOS. GEN. 52. 



117 



plumage sombre, variegated on the wings ; sexes alilie ; young spotted, like 

 thrushes. 



The birds of the group thus defined are, as Baird has pointed out, more closely 

 related to the Turdidce than to the family with which they are usually associated. 

 They consist of about a dozen species, mostly of the genus Myiadestes, though 

 there are others called Cicldopsis and PlatycicMa. With one exception, they are 

 birds of Central and South America, and the West Indies. Our species, formerly 

 called ^^ Ptdorjonys" simply for want of an English name, which I here supply, 

 is not to be confounded with the foregoing. It is an exquisite songster. 



\ 



52. Genus MYIADESTES Swainson. 



Townmid's FJijcafcMng Thrush. Nearly iinifonn ashy-gray, sometimes 

 paler or mixed with whitish 

 on throat, belly, ci'issum 

 and under wing coverts ; 

 a whitish rinij round tiic 

 eye ; quills variegated with 

 pale cinnamon or bufl'y, 

 showing as two oljlique 

 bands in the closed wing ; 

 tail blackish, central feath- 

 ers like the back, the outer- 

 most pair edged and tipped, 

 the two next pair tipped, 

 with white. The young are 

 speckled with round ful- 

 vous spots. Length about 

 8 ; wing and tail about 4-^. Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, United States. 

 NuTT.,"i, 2d cd., 361; Aud., i, 243, pi. 69; Bd., 321, and Rev., 429; 

 Coop., 134 townsendii. 



rrG.57. Townsena's Flj-c:itL'hing Thrush. 

 Bill aiid ieet of natural size; wings and tail 3. 



Family VIREONID.aE. Vireos, or Greenlets. 



Bill shorter than the head, stout, compressed, distinctly notched and hooked at 

 tip ; rictus with conspicuous bristles ; nostrils exposed, overhung with a scale, but 

 reached by the small bristlj' erect frontal feathers. Toes soldered at base for the 

 whole length of the basal joint of the middle one, which is united with the basal 

 joint of the inner and the two basal joints of the outer, all these coherent 

 phalanges very short. (Lateral toes unequal in the genus Vireo.) Tarsus equal 

 to or longer than the middle toe and claw, scutellate in front, laterally undivided, 

 except at extreme base. Wings moderate, of ten primaries, of which the first is 

 short (one-half to one-fourth the second), or spurious, or apparently wanting (being 

 rudimentary and displaced). 



This family was formerly united with the next (Laniidce), chieflj' on account of 

 the resemblance in the shape of the bill of certain species to that of the shrikes ; 

 but the likeness is never perfect, and there are other more important characters, 

 especially in the structure of the feet, by which the two groups may be discrimi- 

 nated. The Vireonidce are peculiar to America ; they are a small family of five or 



