454 Classification of Birds. 



other, as well as with the other divisions of the trihe is effected. 

 Commencing, then, with the short-legged thrushes, or sub-family 

 Brackypodince, he considers that its union with the shrikes or Lani- 

 adce is through Trichophorus, Temm. or bristle-necked thrushes, a 

 genus limited to the warmer latitudes of Western Africa and Ori- 

 ental India, and which appears to pass almost immediately into the 

 Drongo shrikes. In addition to the typical genus Brackypus, under 

 which are several sub-genera, this sub-family also contains, Micro- 

 pus, Sw. ; Dasycephala, Sw. also an American form is a fourth, and 

 is so named from the stiff bristly feathers which surround the fore- 

 head and crown ; and the fifth is Cinclus, Bechst. to which genus our 

 well known dipper belongs. He concludes this chapter with a va- 

 riety of interesting observations on the analogies of the Myiotherinoc, 

 with the other portions of the Merididce, illustrated by a series of 

 tables, which we recommend the student to compare with the types 

 of the various forms before him. Many of these analogies will, no 

 doubt, at first sight appear to be indistinct and far-fetched ; but as 

 we have before observed, it only requires patient and minute inves- 

 tigation to be convinced of the general correctness of our author's 

 views, and of that law of representation or resemblance which ap- 

 pears to pervade all nature, and which, though less striking and ap- 

 parent, as might be expected, in groups or in individuals far remov- 

 ed from each other, is no less true than that which is readily admit- 

 ted to exist between those which are propinquant. 



The next chapter treats of the family of the Sylviadce, a nu- 

 merous assemblage of birds, mostly distinguished by their small 

 size and delicate structure. The groups of this extensive division, 

 Mr Swainson observes, " are found over all the habitable regions 

 of the globe, and are destined to perform an important part in the 

 economv of nature. To them appears intrusted the subjugation of 

 those innumerable minute insects which lurk within the buds, the 

 foliage, or the flowers of plants, and thus protected, escape that de- 

 struction from swallows (we may add flycatchers) to which they are 

 only exposed during flight." The natural and primary division of 

 this family is into the sub-families Sylviance and Philomelince, the 

 typical groups, and the Saxicolince, Motacillince, and Pariance, 

 which form the aberrant divisions. Commencing with the Motacil- 

 lince, which collectively represent the tenuirostral type of the per- 

 chers, and are the most aberrant section of the family, he points to 

 the genera Motacilla, Linn., and Icteria, Vieil. ; Trichophorus, 

 Temm. ; and Phyllastrephus, Sw. The passage from the short-leg- 

 ged thrushes to the orioles, Oriolinoe, he supposes to be through the 



