110 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



unquestionably associates it with La?iius, although the tarsi are somewhat shorter, 

 and the claws not of that fine and acute make, which would lead us to believe 

 they were used to secure the prey of the bird. The tail is long, considerably 

 graduated, and narrow ; in all which it assimilates to Lanius corvinus. But the bill 

 is the great characteristic of this bird : it preserves, indeed, something of the 

 general form of Lanius, being short ; but it is withal so slender, that it can only 

 be compared to the outer half of the bill of a stout Thrush. Now, if any Shrike 

 can be supposed to represent the Tenuirostres in its own circle, we should cer- 

 tainly suspect this to be the form under which such an analogy would appear. 

 However this may be, it is not only far removed from the typical species, but 

 exhibits no medium of communication between Lanius and Thamnophilus. 



These are all the modifications of form, sufficiently important to be noticed, 

 which we have yet detected in this group ; from which it appears that their circular 

 succession remains for future discovery. Much information is also to be supplied 

 before any decisive opinion can be formed on the value of these distinctions ; and 

 still more impossible is it to separate, at present, the genera from the sub-genera. 



may cite the recently-named genus Monarcha, the characters of which were published in 1822 (Zoological Illustra- 

 tions, O.S., pi. 147-) ; the genus named Collurisoma, first pointed out by us in 1825 ; and the genus, since called 

 Tropidorhynchus, which we had previously named in the Zool. Journal, and, but for these anticipations, should have 

 characterized in the same work. See Zool. Journal, i. 480. 



