SUBGENERA OF SYLVICOLA. 51 
ened points. In this manner, every part of the struc- 
ture of Dumecola ruficauda can be explained, and the 
circular union of the three aberrant subgenera of the 
Sylvicole is effected. 
(56.) In testing the correctness of the foregoing 
views on the subgeneric types of the genus Sylvicola 
by means of the following table of their analogies, we 
may solve one or two important questions resulting 
from the economy of the pine creeper (Mniotilta 
pinus), which may still appear unexplained. The atten-- 
tion of the ornithologist is therefore called to the following 
table, intended to illustrate the relations of the whole 
group. 
Ananoeiss of the Genus Syivicoa. 
Tribes of the 
Perchers. 
Vermivora.  Billlengthened, conic, entire, or nearly so. CoNIROSTRES. 
Subgenera 
of Sylvicola. Analogical Characters. 
Sylvicola. Bill notched a little way from the tip. DENTIROSTRES. 
Dumecola. _ Bill bristled and depressed at the base. FISSIROSTRES. 
Zosterops. Bill slender, arched!; nostrils linear, naked. TENUIROSTRES. 
Mniotilta. Hind toe long, scansorial. SCANSORES. 
(57.) By this table, the close resemblance of Zos- 
terops, both to the small Australian honeysuckers, and 
to the genus Dicewm, is immediately explained ; since 
it is by this type that the tribe of Yenuirostres (to 
which those suctorial groups belong) is actually repre- 
sented. Mniotilta, as typifying the scansorial birds, 
should also possess some analogy to the Rusores ; and 
thus we arrive at an explanation of the gregarious 
economy of the pine creeper (Vermivora pinus), and of 
its singular habit, although a scansorial bird, of feeding 
also upon the ground! So true it is, that an acquaint- 
ance with the station which any being actually holds 
im nature, will generally reveal the true meaning of 
that perplexing union of opposite characters so frequently 
found in a single species: anomalies; indeed, which 
“laugh to scorn” the speculative theories of man, but 
which, upon patient investigation, display an order 
and a regularity in the great plan of nature, at once 
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