THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIEDS. 26 1 



connected ; manubrium not bifurcated ; keel deep, posteriorly 

 rounded and without indentations ; bill always long and 

 slender, gape always narrow ; hand very long and humerus 

 very short ; no semitendinosus or accessory semitendinosus ; only 

 a left carotid present ; no caeca. 



The enormous suborder Passeres, which contains upwards of 

 6200 species, is divisible into two sections, distinguished as 

 Acromyodi (or Oseines) and Mesomyodi. 



In the former the intrinsic muscles of the syrinx are 

 fixed to the ends of the bronchial semirings; while in the 

 Mesomyodi they are fixed to the middle of the bronchial 

 semirings '. 



The section Acromyodi is much the larger one, and may be 

 said to contain no less than thirty-nine families of Birds. 



These families and all the families of Passeres have been 

 limited and arranged by us in accordance with the views of 

 Dr. E. Bowdler Sharpe, F.L.S., most kindly communicated to 

 us, and they will stand in the order adopted by him, though 

 it is impossible to arrange them, any more than the orders of 

 Birds (and for the same reason), in any satisfactory linear series 



The student will see that the family and subfamily names are 

 modifications of the names of the various genera which are 

 respectively the types of such families. 



Thus the first family Corvidce^ is the family of the Crows. 

 The second is Paradiseidce, or Birds of Paradise. The third is 

 PtilonorhynchidcB, or the Bower-birds. The fourth is Siwmidce, 

 or the true Starlings; while the Tree-starlings, Eulabetidce, 

 form the fifth family. The sixth family, Euryoerotidce, is 

 constituted by a single genus and, as yet, a single species — the 

 Blue-bill. Birds called Drongos, Dicruridce ", form the seventh 

 family ; the eighth, OrioUdcB, being constituted by the Orioles. 

 The ninth, leteridce, is made up of the Cassiques and Hangnests, 

 and the tenth.,Ploceid<iE, of theWeaver-birds. The eleventh family 

 is that of the Tanagers, Tanagridce; and the twelfth is composed 

 of the American Creepers, Ccerehidce. To these succeed the 

 Sandwich-Island Honey-eaters, Drepanididae.. The great family 

 of Finches ', Fringillidm, comes next ; while the Larks *, Alau- 

 didce, and the Wagtails * and Pipits, Motacillidce, make up the 



' Page 214. ' See ante, p. 122. 



' P. 105. ■* P. 109. ' P. 111. 



