AMPELID^E. 233 



to pronounce one of them, at least, to be perfect. At present we must confine 

 ourselves to a few remarks on the aberrant forms. 



The genus Procnias of Count HofFmanseck is evidently placed beyond the circle 

 of the true Ampelince, typically represented by the genera Cashmorhynchus of 

 M. Temminck, and the restricted genus Ampelis of Linnaeus. Unlike all the 

 other forms, its wings are very long and formed for rapid flight. The same 

 character belongs to the Brazilian genus Phibalura, and is equally conspicuous 

 in the European Chatterers (Bomby cilia) . These are the only three genera we 

 have yet ventured to place within this subdivision. The fourth is still more 

 obscure, and would seem to be represented by the Lanius arcuatus of the 

 Paris Museum ; a bird with the plumage of Phibalura and the bill of Vireo. 

 To this latter group the Australian genus Pachycephala, Sw., appears, to us, to 

 be unquestionably related; while the Parus indicus, now characterized as the 

 genus Leiothrix, Sw., makes the nearest approach, of any bird yet discovered, 

 to Pachycephala on one side, and to the Parlance on the other. The latter 

 affinity, indeed, is so strong as recently to have led M. Temminck into the belief 

 that it actually belonged to the old genus : a glance, however, at its structure 

 would have shewn how totally it differed. Although we feel some confidence in 

 the situation here assigned to Lelothrix, we are totally unprepared at present 

 to state the extent of this division ; neither is it at all clear whether Vireo and 

 Pachycephala form a part of this, or constitute the remnants of another sub-family. 

 The mode in which the three aberrant groups may possibly be united cannot, of 

 course, be even conjectured. — Sw. 



[59.] 1. Vireo olivaceus. (Bonaparte.) Red-eyed Greenlet. 



Genus, Vireo. Vieillot. 



Red-eyed Fly-catcher {Muscicapa olivacea). Wilson, ii., p. 55, pi. 12, f. 3. 



Muscicapa altiloqua. Vieil. Ois. de V Am. Lep., i., pi. 38, p. 67- 



Vireo olivaceus. Bonap. St/n., p. 71, No. 91. 



Ch. Sp. Vireo ot.ivacetjs, supra flavescenti-viridis ; subtus albescens, vertice et lineis inter oculos et rostrum 

 plumbeis, lined superciliosa, albescenti, alts elongatis, remige prima, quartam aquanti. 



Sp, Ch. Red-eyed Fly-catcher, yellowish-green, beneath whitish ; crown and a line between the bill and eye 

 blackish-grey ; eye-stripe white ; wings long ; the first and fourth quill feathers equal. 



We have frequently remarked the disposition of Nature to disguise species, 

 essentially distinct, in the same coloured plumage ; and this is sometimes done so 



2 H 



