CORVID.E. 289 



natural must be tried, will bring to light many remarkable peculiarities which 

 belong only to the foregoing arrangement. Yet, however confident we feel on 

 the general accuracy of this sketch, we are unprepared either to show in what 

 manner the sub-families are connected, or to refer many of the modern genera 

 to their natural divisions. The Jays (Garrulince) unquestionably represent the 

 Bush-Shrikes (Thamnophilince) ; while the genus Crypsirina and the Short-legged 

 Glaucopince of M. Temminck form part of a group typifying the Drongo Shrikes. 

 The slender bill of the Fregilince, at the opposite side of the circle, indicates 

 the position of the Fissirostral group, corresponding to the Buceridce. But we 

 have many doubts on the true nature of the Tenuirostral type, since it must not 

 only represent the Hang-nest Starlings (Jcterince), but also the Caterpillar- 

 catchers (Ceblepyrinee) and the typical Ampelidw or Chatterers. Now it will 

 strike every ornithologist who has the means of examining the Gracula calva of 

 authors (of which no specimen, we believe, exists in the British collections), that 

 notwithstanding its general resemblance to the Chaiwe of Le Vaillant, (Ois. de 

 I'Amer., pi. 49,) it is decidedly a Crow ; while the latter is considered by Le 

 Vaillant as unquestionably belonging to the Ampelidce. We have, therefore, 

 good reason to suspect the Gracula calva to be one of the tenuirostral types 

 of the Corcidce. In all probability it will prove to be the sub-family type, 

 representing that tribe, although at present we choose to omit its designation 

 in the foregoing table. 



On the situation of such singular or apparently isolated genera as Picathartes, 

 Less., Podoces, Fisher, and, more particularly, Barita, Cuv., we cannot at 

 present give any opinion worth recording. We suspect that Nucifraga is the 

 Scansorial sub-genus of Corvus ; and notwithstanding the confidence with which 

 the genus Coracias has been referred, in the natural system, to this family, we 

 have not the least hesitation in placing it with the Fissirostres. It is, indeed, 

 almost inconceivable that the strongest prejudice in favour of any theory, pro- 

 fessing to follow natural affinities, could so far have blinded the judgment of a 

 naturalist as to make him separate Colaris from Coracias, and to violate Nature 

 by placing these two forms (so intimately allied that we scarcely know how to 

 distinguish them), not only in two distinct families, but actually in two widely 

 situated tribes *. Setting aside every other consideration, and looking merely to 

 the wide gape, which has been so much insisted upon as a peculiarity of the genus 



* " Judging, however, even from external characters, we have no hesitation in stating our opinion that these rela- 

 tions" (between Colaris and Coracias) " are merely analogical." — Linn. Trans., xv., p. '203. 



2 P 



