LANIAD^E. 109 



The genera and sub-genera among the 



LANIAN.E 



are few, although the typical group, to which belong the birds hereafter described, 

 contains many species of great uniformity in structure and economy : their habits 

 are too well known to require elucidation. The Falcuncidus frontalis* , a bird of 

 New Holland, evidently departs from the type both in organization and habits. 

 This species, according to Lewin, " frequents thick bushes, and is very active in 

 tearing off the bark of trees and shrubs in search of insects, particularly hard- 

 coated beetlest;" an economy which is accompanied by a corresponding pecu- 

 liarity in the structure of the feet. Tropical America produces another modification 

 of form in the genus (?) Cyclaris, where the bill, although rather more lengthened, 

 assimilates to that of Falcunculus ; but the wings, feet, and tail assume the 

 weakness of construction so conspicuous in the next sub-family ; of its economy 

 we are in total ignorance, but its whole structure is evidently against the idea of 

 its possessing the bold and daring habits of the typical Shrikes. In Southern 

 Africa there is another form, still farther removed from the typical Shrikes, and 

 which we have distinguished by the name of Nilaus : it is the Lanius capensis of 

 Linnean writers, and evidently unites the characters both of this sub-family and 

 the next : the bill, as in the preceding forms, is arched from the base, and its tooth 

 is well developed ; but, instead of being short and thick, it is slender and much 

 lengthened ; while the tail is short, weak, and perfectly even ; the back and rump 

 feathers are thick and soft ; but the feet and claws are those of Lanius. Among 

 the rich zoological collections made by our friend Mr. Burchell, is a form be- 

 longing to this division, which has not yet been made known. We must notice 

 another, too remarkable to be confounded with either of the preceding : the Lanius 

 leucogrammicus of Professor Reinwardt £. The general conformation of this bird 



* We have very little doubt, when this family is better known, that this group will be found to represent the Scan- 

 sores in its own circle. Naturalists have passed over in silence the remarkable structure of the feet : the hind toe, as 

 in all scansorial birds, is so much lengthened as to be fully equal to the middle toe. 



f Lewin's Birds of New South Wales, pi. 26. 



X We shall give to this, and to all other groups or forms considered of sufficient importance to be kept in view, a 

 character and a name, to be employed hereafter as a generic, sub-generic, or sectional distinction, according to the 

 value they may respectively assume when the natural arrangement of the group to which they may belong has been 

 made out by analysis. In calling the attention of ornithologists to these minor variations in structure, we formerly 

 thought it sufficient to designate the group merely by citing the name of the principal species, or by detailing its pro- 

 minent characteristics, without laying ourselves open to the imputation of framing more new names than were abso- 

 lutely essential. But our delicacy in this instance has been superfluous : not only have these groups been since elevated 

 to the rank of genera, but no notice has been taken of our previous observations on them. As instances of this, we 



