BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. i7 



Sviperfai-nily OSCINKS. 

 SONG BIRDS, 1 



Osc'mes Keyserlinq and Blasiits, Wirbelth. Europ., 1840, pp. xxxvi, 80. 



Acromyodi normales Gaerod, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1876, 518. 



Laminiplantares -\- Scutelliplanlares (part) Sundevall, Meth. Nat. Av. Disp. Tent,, 



1872, 2, 53. 

 Passeroidess Stejneger, Stand. Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 481. 



Passerine birds with the syrinx diacromyodous, anterior toes eleu- 

 therodactyle, palate gegithognathous, intestinal convolutions of Type 

 VII, myological formula AXY or AX, and only one (the left) carotid 

 artery. 



Metasternum 2-uotched or with 3 fenestree; spina externa sterni 

 long; vomer large; hallux stouter than lateral anterior toes, with its 

 claw larger than that of the inner toe; planta tarsi covered by two 

 longitudinal plates closely apposed along their posterior margin, where 

 forming a sharp ridge (except in family Alaudidse); syrinx complex, 

 the intrinsic muscles composed of 4-5 pairs, inserted into the extremi- 

 ties of the bronchial semirings; propatagialis (tensor patagii brevi&) 

 muscle specialized; deep plantar tendons of Type VII. 



No classification of the Oscines has hitherto been proposed that will 

 stand a careful test with reference to the number and limits of the so- 

 called family groups or the characters upon which they are based; 

 nor can the present author say, after weeks of patient, persistent, and 

 at times hopeful effort, that he has been able to solve the problem. 



The following arrangement is presented as provisional only, as, 

 indeed, every scheme must necessarily be until the anatomy of numer- 

 ous ^ forms whose internal .structure is now unknown shall have been 

 carefully investigated. It maj' be observed that certain somewhat 

 radical innovations have been introduced in the waj^ of additional 

 " families " and changes to the limits of some of those currentlj- recog- 

 nized; but these innovations seem unavoidable if any advance is to be 

 made, for if anything has been made clear by the author's recent 

 study of the subject it is that improvement is possible only by greater 

 or less radical departure from stereotyped lines, which draw arbitrary 

 limits to many of the so-called family groups, thereby rendering them 

 palpably artificial, genera which obviously belong to one group being 

 often assigned to another, while other groups are made too compre- 



^It is unfortunate that no better vernacular name for this group of Passerine birds 

 has been invented or seems available. The term is certainly both inappropriate and 

 misleading, since by no means all Oscines are songsters (some of them, in fact, being 

 almost voiceless, e. g.,AmpeHs), while the Pseudoscines and many of the Clamatorea 

 are as much gifted with musical ability as the average oscinine songster. 



^In reality the vast majority of genera since those which have been thus studied 

 are comparatively few in number. 



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