208 



NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



— an affinity or an analogy? Simply, as we conceive, the latter. The analogy 

 between Sylvia and Troglodytes, indeed, is very strong, but not more so than that 

 between Chloropsis and Meliphaga, already illustrated. We see no reason, there- 

 fore, to believe that part of the Wrens belong to the Scansores and part to the 

 Sylviadw ; still less for supposing that the two groups, by these birds, are brought 

 together, and consequently meet *. The most unanswerable proof, however, which 

 can be brought forward against this idea (resting, indeed, upon partial reasoning 

 only), is derived from comparing the analogies of the following groups : — 



Families of 

 SCANSORES. 



PlCIDiE . . . 



PsITTACIDjE . 



Ramphastid^e 

 cuculid^e . . 



CERTHIADiE * 



ANALOGIES. 

 Typical in their respective circles ; tail feathers pointed . 

 Bill shorter, curved from the base 

 Representing the Fissirostres in their respective circles 

 Wings long, pointed .... 



Hind toe lengthened ; bill compressed, entire ; rictus smooth . Prinea. 



Genera of 

 Sylvian-*:. 



Sylvia. 



Malurus. 



Culicivora. 



Hyliota? 



Troglodytes (as forming a part of the Certhiadce) is thus represented by Prinea 

 and Orthotonus, Horsf. ; and this analogy at orice accounts for these three forms 

 having been supposed to enter among the Scansorial creepers. In drawing up 

 this table, we again see the groups in the Sylviadw partially transposed, since 

 Sylvia, and not Malurus, unites to Culicivora : yet we cannot discover that this 

 originates in any defect in this view of their real affinities. On comparing 

 this group, however, with the Merulidw, we find that Prinea obviously repre- 

 sents the Crater opodince, and Culicivora the Brachypodince, both of which, as we 

 have already seen, possess double analogies to the Insessorial orders of Scansores 

 and Fissirostres. 



On the last sub-family of the 



PHILOMELIN^E, 



typically represented by the true Nightingale, we must not dwell, since there 

 does not appear to be one species found in Northern America. 



* " We may observe these two groups to be placed in opposite stations in the general circle of affinity, and may add 

 this instance to many others, where groups similarly circumstanced are found to meet." — Linn. Trans., xiv., p. 441. 



