MERULIDiE. 157 



appear to frequent only low trees or shrubs. Their geographic range is almost 

 limited to the warm latitudes of the Old World. 



Birds answering to this description have been scattered in almost every group 

 of the Insessores. It is therefore impossible, at present, to name the most typical 

 genus. That to which we have given the name of Crateropus * appears to exhibit 

 the above characters in great perfection, although the Gracula striata, of the 

 Paris Museum, another very prominent type, may possibly hold this station : near 

 to these we must place the genera Megalurua, Pomatorkinus, and Timalia, of 

 Dr. Horsfield ; the Dasiornis f and Phosphodes of Mr. Vigors ; part of the 

 Maluri of M. Temminck, together with the newly-characterized type, Donocobius, 

 Swains. J, this latter being the only representation of the group in South America. 



Dissimilar as this sub-family undoubtedly is to the Orioles, there are not wanting 

 forms in each, which, to us, evince a mutual approximation. Sericulus prepares 

 us for the great change about to take place in the structure of the feet ; while we 

 are in possession of a Long-legged Thrush, decidedly belonging to this sub- 

 family, whose plumage, at least, immediately reminds us of the Orioles. Like 

 those birds, also, the rictus is smooth, the nostrils completely naked, the bill 

 lengthened, compressed, and slightly arched; and, like the Orioles (as it is said), 

 we know that this bird fabricates a most beautiful, long, pendulous nest§. 



To pursue our observations on the minor forms of this sub-family, would be to 

 theorize where we should analyze. It therefore only remains to show in what 

 manner the aberrant circle is closed, by the union of this family with the Brachy- 

 podinw. For this purpose, let the ornithologist examine the Icteria polyglotta, or 

 the Yellow-breasted Chat of Wilson : he will there see a bird possessing nearly 

 all the typical characters of the Long-legged Thrushes ; their short, compressed, 

 arched, aid entire bill ; their feeble rounded wings — their strong and lengthened 

 tarsi — and their hairy crown. Let him read the extraordinary history, given by 

 the American ornithologist, of this singular bird (vol. i., p. 90) ; let him then turn 

 to the account of the African Brachypus, described by Le Vaillant, under the name 

 of Le Brunoir, Ois. d'Af., hi., p. 39, and he will be disposed to think that either 

 description might be applied to one or both birds. 



But if we had entertained any latent doubts on this union, the recent proposal of 



* Zoological Illustrations. New Series, No. 17, pi. 80. 



■f This name, as already intimated by Mr. Gray, must be rejected ; since the group had long before received the 

 denomination of Sphanura from that learned zoologist and accomplished traveller, Professor Lichtenstein. 



+ lb., N. S., No. 16, pi. 72. 



§ A fine specimen, both of the bird and its nest, formerly in Bullock's Museum, is now in that of the Liverpool 

 Institution. We have subsequently received two skins of this bird from Western Africa ; and another, in the 

 Fort Pitt Museum of Chatham, was brought from the coast of Gambia. — Sw. 



