158 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



the genus Ixos by M. Temminck, and its adoption by Mr. Vigors, would have 

 dissipated every scruple. We feel gratified, indeed, that these intelligent orni- 

 thologists have, unknowingly, admitted a peculiarity in natural arrangement, 

 which, so far as this family, at least, is concerned, we might have felt it necessary 

 to demonstrate, both by long quotations and much tedious detail. The genus 

 Ixos, after long consideration on the part of its proposer, is at length made to 

 embrace the greatest part of our Brachypodince, and nearly the whole of our 

 CratopodincE . The characters by which we here distinguish the two groups, 

 namely, the different construction of their tarsi, having been either overlooked, or 

 viewed as of little importance by these gentlemen *. The truth, indeed, is, that 

 this union is so close, and the links of connexion so perfect, that we are still 

 undetermined whether to place Icteria among the Brachypodince, or at the utmost 

 limits of the Cratopodinw . For reasons, however, too long, and perhaps too 

 tedious to be given in this place, we adopt the first ; since we suspect the exist- 

 ence of a form, among the Crateropodinw , still more perfectly uniting the two sub- 

 families. 



Upon a review, therefore, of the preceding observations on the three aberrant 

 groups of the Merulidce, we consider that there is sufficient evidence to believe 

 they follow each other in the series here stated, and that they constitute one pri- 

 mary circle ; at the same time, it must be remembered, that our knowledge 

 on their internal arrangement is singularly imperfect ; so much so, that we cannot, 

 as yet, separate the genera from the sub-genera, or even, in some instances, point 

 out with precision the pre-eminent types. We must now return to the Brachy- 

 podiiw ; and, bearing in remembrance their aberrant forms, let us see in what 

 manner they are connected to the sub-typical circle of 



MYOTHERIN^E, 



or Ant Thrushes. We have already seen that Trichophorus occupies an aberrant 

 station in its own sub-family. There was an interesting lot of skins from Sierra 

 Leone, almost entirely consisting of these birds, which were purchased by us at 

 Bullock's auction, and part of which we transferred to M. Temminck. Among 

 those which remained was one bird, which had long stood in our collection as a 

 Trichophorus ; its plumage is the same as the generality of the species ; being 

 olive-green above, and yellowish beneath ; while the tail, like several Trichophori 



* This genus, after all, cannot be adopted ; at least, in any system professing to follow natural affinities ; for, inde- 

 pendent of the above mixture, it embraces forms belonging to two other families, namely, the Laniadce and the Sylviadee. 

 It is, in short, one of the most vague and artificial groups that can well be imagined. — Sw. 



