MERULIDCE. 195 



FURTHER REMARKS ON THE ANALOGIES OF THE MERULIDCE. 



So many important and interesting considerations crowded upon our attention 

 while investigating the natural affinities of this family, that, in our desire not to 

 be diffuse, we have unintentionally omitted one of the most curious set of analogies 

 belonging to the Merulidce, and therefore too important to be passed over in 

 silence. All systematists who have mentioned the Brachypus (Chloropsis) * 

 Malabaricus, (Jardine and Selby,) or the Verdin icterocephale of M. Temminck, 

 describe it as having a filamentous tongue, and as sucking the nectar of flowers. 

 This consideration, no doubt, influenced the intelligent authors of the Illustrations 

 of Ornithology to refer this very beautiful group (which they have the undoubted 

 merit of first characterising) to the Meliphagidce. 



Now even supposing that the Chloropsides (the true representatives of the Pittce, 

 among the Mendidw,) are really nectarivorous, it by no means follows that their 

 actual affinities lie among the Meliphagidce ; since groups which represent any 

 given order or tribe in their own circle, invariably present us with some one or 

 more characters indicative of such analogies ; in many instances, indeed, these 

 analogies are so strong, that the best zoologists have been deceived into the belief 

 that they were real affinities. Nothing, perhaps, will illustrate this peculiarity 

 better than a comparison of the Merulidce with the tribe of Tenuirostres. 



Sub-families of Families of 



MERULID.E. ANALOGIES. TENUIROSTRES. f 



Merulince. f The most typical in their respective circles: 1 Trochilid*:. 



< wings, in the one (typically), strong and > 

 Myotherince. j po i nte d, in the other feeble and rounded. J Cinnyrid^, 



f Feet short, strong ; hind toe much lengthened ; 1 



BrachiipodinasA -, , -, 7 , ( Meliphagid^. 



' nr [ wings and tan rounded. J 



* This is another striking instance of the defective information on systematic ornithology under which the authors 

 of the Planches Colonies appear to labour. In a recent number of their work we find this group given as new to 

 science ; whereas it had been named and characterised " at least four years before." — See Jardine and Selby's Illustra- 

 tions of Ornithology, parts i. and vi. 



f In merely intimating our idea, upon a former occasion (Zool. Journ., i., 479), on the circular affinities of this tribe, 

 we looked to the Nectarimdce of llliger as the subtypical group. Analysis has fully confirmed this view ; but as the 

 typical genus is Cinnyris, we now apply that name to the whole. There will be no danger of confounding the Cinny- 

 ridce of Mr. Vigors with ours : the contents of the two groups are almost totally different. 



2 C 2 



