50 MANUAL 



constitute the family/' though now settled with much cer- 

 tainty, was a much more difficult one to decide. Should we 

 enter into the question, as some authorities seem disposed to 

 do, of what features of other groups in other families do the 

 individuals or genera of this family possess, we shall have our 

 hands at once so full that a separate volume would be needed 

 to fully explain the relationship. We might give it the name 

 of Sylvanology ; and to discuss this fully would involve a 

 discussion of nearly two-thirds of all the species of Insessorial 

 Ornithology. The advanced student will soon discover " like- 

 nesses," as well as see in what lines to push his inquiries. For 

 the present, the young student had best seek to know in what 

 respect the included forms are like themselves, then the resem- 

 blance of individual forms to other and outside species will 

 open to him naturally. We will proceed, then, to give the 

 very difficult formula which characterizes the group. 



In General : Let the young student procure a specimen of 

 a species of Sylvicolida?, which he has shot himself or ob- 

 tained from some museum or dealer or thorough, systematic 

 ornithologist, and has been correctly named ; then, taking this 

 as a model, proceed to make his own diagnosis (as it is called) 

 of its characteristics. To do this almost any of the True 

 Warblers will answer. When he has carefully written out all 

 these evident characteristics, let him apply them to any of the 

 other forms in the family. He will then find that, with very 

 little change, they will apply equally well to every species of the 

 Sylvicolida? . And that they will not apply, except with very 

 great change, to any other family of North American birds. 

 Then the characters of this family are, in the main, negative 

 characters. In the above manner, only, have I been able to 

 separate the group with any degree of satisfaction, either to 

 myself or to others. 



In Particular : Size small ; bill short, conical, and abrupt- 

 ly acute, even or very faintly notched at end ; tarsus, feet, and 

 toes symmetrically regular and not, any of them, abnormally 

 developed ; tarsus scutellate ; wing and tail regular and sym- 



