BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 427 



typical forms, the former being, indeed, a very near relative, its close 

 relationship being shown even in the coloration. 



The Mniotiltidie are essentiallj' — most of them strictly — insectivo- 

 rous birds, of active habits. Most of them are arboreal, nesting- and 

 feeding among the trees and rarely descending to the ground; some are 

 terrestrial, living much upon or near the ground, where they walk in the 

 graceful "mincing" manner of a Wagtail oi Pipit, meanwhile tilting 

 the body, as if upon a pivot, and oscillating the tail in the saine char- 

 acteristic manner. Most of them are expert ''iij'catchers," the Seto- 

 plmgcB notably so. Others ci'cep about the trunks and l)ranchcs of 

 trees as nimbl^^ as a Nuthatch. The majority of them combine, in 

 various degrees, these several habits. 



As a rule the Mniotiltidfe are birds of beautiful plumage, though 

 their attractiveness in this respect consists in the tasteful arrangement 

 or "pattern" of the colors rather than their brilliancy. Yellow is the 

 most common and characteristic hue, though this is usually relieved 

 by markings or areas of black, graj', olive-green, or white, usually by 

 two or more of these colors; red is not unfrequent, gra3'ish blue less 

 common, while pure blue, green, or purple are never present, and the 

 plumage never glossy as it is in man}' Coerebidte and Tanagridas. 



While few Mniotiltidse are songsters of the first class,' manj' of 

 them have attractive songs; but perhaps the majority, at least among 

 the North American species, are songsters of very ordinary or inferior 

 merit. Some of them' possess two songs of utterly different char- 

 acter: a plain, monotonous repetition of sharp notes as the ordinary 

 song, and a rich, exuberant warble, uttered on special occasions, 

 sometimes entirely' replacing the former during the evening hours.' 



The group is peculiar to America, where it represents the Sylviidos 

 and Muscicapidse of the Eastern Hemisphere. The latest authority on 

 the family * recognizes 158 species and subspecies belonging to 21 

 genera; but if to these be added 32 species and 4 genera transferred 

 from the Ccerebidre., Tanagridse, and Mimidas, as before noted, and 



'This distinction can, perhaps, ))e claimed for only one genus. Rhofliviiiirhht scliis- 

 larea is said to be one of the sweetest songsters of western Mexico, its "voluptuous 

 and melodious notes" being, according to the late Colonel Grayson, fully equal to 

 those of any species of Thrush. 



'Seiurus aurocapilliiti and Prolonoiaria cHrea, for example. 



' For further information concerning general characteristics of the Mniotiltidfe see 

 Coues, Birds of the Colorado Valley (1878), 199-202, and Ridgway, The Ornithology 

 of Illinois, i (1889), 113, 114. 



'Catalogue | of the | Passeriformes, | or | Perching Birds, | in the | Collection | of 



tlie I British Museum. | | Fringilliformes. Part I. | containing the families | 



Dica;idK, Hirundinida;, Ampelidfe, | Mniotiltida?, and Motacillidae, | By | R. Bowdler 

 Sharps. | London- | Printed by order of the Trustees. | 1885. | 



Pp. [i]-xin, 1-682, pis. i-xii. (Mniotiltida; on pp. 225-439, 638-653, pis. ix-xii. 

 Constituting vol. x of the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. ) 



