Classification of Birds. 457 



subfamilies of which it is composed, suggesting, at the same time, 

 that the accuracy of two of these, viz. Leiotrichance and Pachyce- 

 phalias, remain to be further tested, by extended observation and 

 analysis. Tropical America is the habitat of the typical species, 

 the Bombycilla garrula, or waxwing, being the only European re- 

 presentative of the family. They are, he remarks, distinguished 

 from all others of the Dentirostres, by the enormous width of their 

 gape, which in many extends beyond the eye, and in some is nearly 

 as wide as that of a goatsucker. The particular use of this struc- 

 ture is at once explained by the nature of their food. They live al- 

 most entirely on soft berries and small fruits, which, from being 

 swallowed whole, naturally require a very wide passage to pass 

 down the throat." The subfamilies are designated as follows, Leio- 

 trichanee, Pachycephalias , which he afterwards changes in the 

 Synopsis to Vireonince, Bombycillince, Ampelino?, and Piprince, the 

 three first forming the aberrant, the two last the typical divisions. 

 Under Leiotrichanas, he places Leiothrix, Sw. and Pteruthius, Sw. 

 each represented by a single species, natives of India,* and whose 

 direct affinities appear to have been mistaken or overlooked by their 

 first describers, the one having been included in the genus Pants, 

 the other described as a species of Lanius. A minute examination of 

 these birds is, however, sufficient to show that their appropriate sta- 

 tion is within the limits of the present family. In Vireonince, he places 

 the genera Vireo, Vieil. Pachycephala, Sw. and another which he 

 now calls Ptilochlorus. In Bombycillinos, the last of the aberrant 

 division, and representing the Fissirostres, he places Bombycilla, 

 Briss., Phibalura, Vieil., and Procnias, Hoff. The subfamily Am- 

 pelince, containing the true or typical chatterers, are united to the 

 Bombycillino? by means of the genus Calyptotnena, Raff*. Chrysopte- 

 ryx, Sw. follows, and is succeeded by Casmorhynchus , Temm. and 

 Ampelis, Linn, the first distinguished by the curious appendages with 

 which the heads and throats of some species are furnished, the second, 

 for the surpassing beauty and richness of the plumage of its mem- 

 bers. The fifth form or genus of the subfamily is represented by 

 Rupicola, Briss. rock manakin, which leads directly to G. Phce- 

 nicircus, Sw. (the Ampelis carnifex of Linn.) by which he enters 

 the Piprinae or subtypical group of the family, generally known by 

 the name of manakins, from the diminutive size of most of the 

 species. Under this division he includes Pipra, Linn. Calyptura, 

 Sw. and Pardalotus, Vieil. 



The valuable collections of birds sent from Nipaul by Mr Hodgson contain 

 a second species of Leiothrix — Ed. 



