SYLVIAD.E. 205 



another, connecting this form with Zosterops. The affinity of these white-ringed 

 Warblers to the Sylvicolw, we pointed out in characterizing the latter group*. 

 Finally, the Mniotilta pinus, Sw., or Pine Warbler of Wilson, so completely re- 

 sembles the Vermivora solitaria, Sw., that several authors have actually mistaken 

 the one species for the other f. 



Let us now look to the analogies of this singular group. 



Conirostres . Bill lengthened, conic, entire ; rictus nearly smooth . . Vermivora. 



Dextirostes . Bill notched, somewhat remotely from the tip; rictus bristled . Sylvicola. 



Fissirostres . Bill depressed ; feet weak ..... Dumecola. 



Tenuirostres . Bill subulate towards the end ; rictus smooth . . Zosterops. 



Scansores . . Feet scansorial ; hind toe and claw much lengthened . . Mniotilta. 



In these five types of form, being the first assemblages of species — in other 

 words, the lowest denomination of groups in nature, — we have a typical repre- 

 sentation of every division in the whole class of AVES. It was no doubt the very 

 conic and sharp-pointed bills of the Vermivora? which induced M. Cuvier to think 

 they connected the Warblers with the Conirostres, by means of Icterus. The 

 remote notch and the bristled rictus are both characters common to a Shrike and a 

 Sylvicola ; and that the type of this form should have been ranked by Linnaeus as 

 a Parus, is immediately understood by that genus representing Sylvicola m its own 

 circle. Dumecola ruficauda, Sw., would pass for a Flycatcher, if its feet and 

 wings were not examined. The analogy between Zosterops and the Tenuirostres 

 is so perfect and beautiful, as to have deceived such accurate observers as MM. 

 Cuvier, Vieillot, Temminck, and Lesson. The Diceum chcronotos, or Grimpereau 

 de Vile de Bourbon, PI. Enl. 681,2, of these eminent naturalists, is, in fact, a true 

 Zosterops, and probably the type of the group. Sylvia Javanica is a second, and 

 several others have been also placed in the genus Diceum. In characterizing the 

 sub-genus Oxyglossus (not being aware it had previously received the name of 

 Mniotilta), we ourselves fell into the error of referring it to the scansorial creepers. 

 In this we were principally influenced by the example of M. Cuvier, who ranks 

 the Mniotilta varia as a Nectarinia. These relations, however, as well as every 

 other cited, while they establish the correctness oFthe above table of representa- 

 tives in the fullest manner, are nothing more than so many instances of analogy. 



* Zool. Journ., iii., p. 169. f See Bonaparte's Observ. on Wilson's Nomenclature ; article Sylvia solitaria. 



