
358 BIRDS OF PALESTINE AND PANAMA COMPARED. 
CLAMATORES. OSCINES, 
I. Tree-climbers with long hind-toe and tail feathers 
stiffened. i 


le Certhiide. — 
Il. Tree-perchers with hooked bill, graduating from 
powerful to medium and slender. 
Formicariide. Turdide. 
Thamnophilus, bill strongest, Lanius,* 
Formicarius, “* moderate, Turdus,t 
Formici weak, yleia,t 
Rhamphocenus, “ slender (wren’s), Troglodytes.§ 
their prey and take it on the wing cape 
annide. Muscicapide. 
IV. Flat-billed berry and fruit eaters. 
Ill. Fly-catchers with flat bill and weak legs; wait for 
Bombycillide. 
So the subject might be pursued as it has been by others, 
and many parallels in greater details be drawn. Sutlice it 
to say, that the same can be done for the frogs, the tortoises, 3 
the saurians, and to a great extent for the fishes of this same — 
great fauna. 
Now whether we call these types lower or higher, we find 
them to have spread in former ages over a far greater ara 
of the earth’s surface than at present. The writer has ase’ 
tained that many of the turtles of the Eastern Cretaceous 
period of our country are of this peculiar neotropical group 
and that the species of the Eocene period of England (P late 
mys Bowerbankii and Emys levis) really belong to tee 
Podocremidide, now only known in the Amazon eae 
other (Platemys Bullockii ||) really belongs to another Ki 
of the same series, the Sternothæridæ, now only know? 
Africa. 
This brings us to another point. The whole ae 
Hemisphere shares in the peculiarities of the South Amen“ 
or Neotropical fauna. Australia possesses a strang® wane 
of the old and the new; the clouds of the past floating 2°" 
sunlight of the future. South America, with newe om 
has older reptiles, while to Africa comparatively ka 
ancient landmarks remain. 

*Butcher-birds. tThrushes. ł Warblers. Bakert 
\|Type of the genus Digerrhum Cope. 



