LANIAD.E. 129 



is, nevertheless, a greater depression, and consequently a greater weakness, 

 exhibited in this member ; the nostrils are equally concealed, but the frontal fea- 

 thers, instead of being 1 lengthened, and reflected forwards, are short and velvety ; 

 while the rictus, no longer provided with stiff bristles, is merely furnished with 

 short cetaceous feathers. Continuing this comparison to the tarsi and the wings, 

 we find the first rather longer, and the hind toe shorter ; but the form of wing, 

 and the arrangement of the quills, in Ceblepi/rus and Edolius, are much alike. 

 The most remarkable distinction, however, of this curious bird, is the spine-like 

 rigidity of the rump feathers, which, when pressed against the hand, feel as if 

 they were intermixed with prickles, an effect produced by the bending of the 

 shafts*, one portion of which is very thick, while the other becomes suddenly very 

 slender ; by pressure, the outer half is bent, and presents a sharp angle to the 

 touch, which feels like a spine. It is worthy of remark, that the Cuckoos, which, 

 in the tribe of Scansores, occupy the same relative station as the Ceblepyrince do 

 among the Shrikes, should also exhibit this singular structure. On the whole, 

 distinct as this sub-family is from the last, yet there is such a decided and direct 

 affinity between them, that we must altogether reject the idea of placing the two 

 groups at opposite points in the circle of Laniadce. 



No ornithologist has yet attempted to arrange this group, or to characterize 

 the different modifications of form which it presents. We must, therefore, be 

 content to notice those only which we have personally examined. Premising 

 that all the species seem restricted to the hot latitudes of the Old World, and 

 that they have received the name of Caterpillar-catchers from feeding principally, 

 as Le Vaillant informs us, on such soft insects. 



We have already intimated that the true passage from the Edoliance to the 

 Ceblepyrince may be yet undiscovered. If, however, we may consider the absence 

 of spinous feathers in certain of the latter birds, together with an unusually com- 

 pressed bill, as indications of such a transition, we shall find these characters in 

 the genus Erucivora f, a group of small birds, hitherto found only in the Indian 

 Islands. We are, nevertheless, inclined to believe that the true annectant type is 

 at present unknown. From Erucivora to the typical genera Ceblepyris and Phoe- 

 Jiicornis, as now modified, the gradations are almost imperceptible ; the first seems 



* An error on this subject appears to have crept into the Regne Animal, where it is stated, vol. i., p. 363, that 

 " Les tiges snnt un peu prolongces, roides et piquantes des plumes de leur croupion." We have never seen one species 

 where the feathers are so constructed. 



•f- We first detected this form among the stores of the Zoological Society ; but in conformity, as we were told, with 

 the rules of the Society, we were prohibited from taking any notes. Fortunately, however, the liberality of MM. 

 Cuvier and Geoffroy St. Hilaire enabled us to make full use of the specimens at the Garden of Plants, by which means 

 we have here been enabled to define the group Sw. 



S 



