MERULID^. 197 



succession of types has been represented as complete*: what degree of confidence 

 may be attached to this latter arrangement we shall not now stop to inquire. 

 That the Paradise-birds represent the Orioles might be inferred from the fact, 

 that Linnaeus and many other writers have actually placed the Paradise Oriole in 

 the genus Paradisea, under the name of Paradisea aurea. But we have much 

 better evidence for this analogy. M. Lesson, one of the most enterprising 

 voyagers and the most zealous naturalists of France, has the enviable honour of 

 being the only scientific ornithologist who has contemplated these magnificent 

 birds in a state of nature. His testimony, uninfluenced by theory, is consequently 

 of the first importance. He distinctly informs us, in his valuable little Manuel 

 d'Ornithologie, i., p. 387, that the true Paradise-birds derive their chief, if not 

 their only subsistence from soft fruits f ; thus preserving- their direct analogy not 

 only to the Oriolinai, but to the Ampelidce, the Mnsophagidce , the Ceblepyrince, 

 the Icterince, and other analogical types of the Temdrostres. 



Let us now look to the Crateropodince with reference to the Promeropidw. 

 In both these groups the bill is peculiarly hard, slender, and unusually com- 

 pressed ; both have tails longer, softer, and more cuneated than any other birds 

 in their respective circles ; and both appear to frequent humid and watery situa- 

 tions j. So perfect, in short, is this analogy, that our friend Sir W. Jardine, Bart., 

 is in possession of an African bird, belonging to the Crateropodince, which might 

 be very easily taken for a Promerops ; and it is still a matter of doubt to which of 

 these groups the rare Upupa Capensis, PI. Enl. 697, (a bird we have not yet seen) 

 may truly belong. 



* " The group we have selected as representing the Meliphaga of Lewin and authors is the only assemblage of these 

 birds of which we can speak with any satisfaction to ourselves. They exhibit five prominent modifications of form, 

 according to the variation chiefly of the characters of the bill and tail." — The Meliphaga fulvifrons " is placed at that 

 extreme of the section which joins the first subdivision, and completes the circular succession of the whole group.'" — 

 Linn. Trans., vol. xv., pp. 313, 318. 



f "II aime a se tenir sur les arbres de teck, — et dont le petit fruit forme sa nourriture. II ne se perche commune'meut 

 que sur le sommet des plus grande arbres. Lorsqu'il en descend, c'est pour manger les fruits de quelques arbres 

 moyens." " Pour chasser les Oiseaux de Paradis, les voyageurs doivent se rappeler qu'il est necessaire de partir des 

 le matin du navire, d'arriver au pied de l'arbre de teck, ou du figuier, que ces oiseaux recherchent a cause de leur 

 fruit.'" p. 390. " Le Paradisier petit emeraude," continues M. Lesson, " mange sans doute de plusieurs substances 

 dans son etat de liberte:'' but what these may be, besides fruits, he does not appear to have discovered, since he only 

 vouches, in short, for that particular fact which we are now applying. " Je puis affirmer," continues M. Lesson, 

 " qu'il vit de grains de teck, et (Tun fruit nomme anuhou, de saveur fade et mucilagineuse, de la grosseur d'une petite 

 figue d' Europe, et qui appartient a un arbre du genre Ficus." — Manuel d'Orn., p. 390. 



As the Tenuirostres will not again be mentioned, we take this opportunity of correcting our views on the situation 

 of the magnificent Ptiloris Paradiseus, Sw., suspected by us to be an aberrant form of the Meliphagidce: it more 

 properly represents the Scansorial type of the Paradiseadce. — Sw. 



% See Burchell's Travels, i., p. 326 ; ii., p. 346. 



