Genus Thamnophilus, Vieillot. 227 



10. T. chloropterus, Vieill. N. D., iii. 310 ; Enc, p. 742 ; 

 Gray, sp. 43. 



I do not think it is worth while to reprint Vieillot's charac- 

 ters for these nine species, his descriptions are generally so 

 very inaccurate. The first six of them are said to be in the 

 Paris Museum. Perhaps Dr Pucheran could succeed in re- 

 cognising these as he has already so many other lost types of 

 Vieillot and Lesson. 



11. Lanius ruber, Gm., i. 308. Thamnophilus ruber, 

 Gray's Gen., sp. 47, " body bright red !" a PyrangaU 



12. Lanius varius, Gm., i. 307. Thamnophilus varius, 

 Vieill. N. D., iii. p. 318; Gray's Gen., sp. 48. 



13. Lanius niger, Gm., i. p. 301. Thamnophilus niger, 

 Gray's Gen., sp. 50, is a Tityra, as observed by Mr Gray in 

 his Appendix. I consider it the same as Tityra leuconota, 

 Gray's Gen., pi. 63. Pachyramphus nigrescens, Cab. Orn. 

 Notiz. Wiegm. Archiv., 1847, p. 241, and Pachyrhynchus 

 aterrimus, Lafr. R. Z., 1846, p. 320. 



14. Lanius durantius, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. 79. Tham. sp. 49 

 Gray's Gen., — is, I have little doubt, Lanio atrieapillus, (Gm.) 



Many of the ant-thrushes have been likewise called Thamno- 

 phili by various authors. It is indeed difficult to see how these 

 birds can be placed in two different families, and I agree with 

 the late Mr Strickland,* that " the genus Thamnophilus 

 cannot possibly be separated from the American ant-thrushes 

 in any natural arrangement." M. d'Orbigny, who has had the 

 advantage of observing these birds in their native wilds, is en- 

 tirely of the same opinion, and was, I believe, the first to pro- 

 pose this union. He gives, in his Voyage dans l'Amerique 

 Meridionale, Oiseaux, p. 465, a very interesting account of 

 the general habits of the genus Thamnophilus. ii The bush- 

 shrikes," says this author, " are in America the representa- 

 tives of our shrikes, with this important difference in their 

 habits, that instead of being seen always on the bushes they 

 keep within them, and rarely come to the outside. They are 

 bush-birds par excellence, living in all places where dense 

 thickets present themselves, whether that be in the neighbour- 



* Ann. Nat. Hist., 1844, p. 415. 



