NEW SPECIES OF CINCLOSOMA. 



149 



The rotundity and feebleness of the wings are carried to the extreme 

 limit. 



In the four first species the wing, though rounded, has yet something 

 like acumination in the prime quills. That character begins to disappear 

 in the 5th and 6th ; and is wholly lost in the 7th and 8th species. Quoad 

 lioc, the four first assimilate with Leucolopha, and the two last with Erythro- 

 nota ; the 5th and 6th being transitional. The whole eight have points of 

 difference among themselves which perhaps may be best explained by the 

 assumption that the group (already loaded with species recent as is its 

 institution) is really of more extent than a genus, or at least forms a genus 

 with several subgenera. Certainly, the Pie-like and Thrush-like species 

 form a bold and decided contrast. Leucolopha, Albigula, Grisauris and 

 Monilegera belonging to the former division. The essential characters of 

 the genus appear to me to be as follows : An elongate conic bill, framed 

 as to length and thickness upon the Meruline model, but distinguished 

 from that of Tardus by its straightness, by the pent roof, rather than con- 

 vex, shape of its maxilla ; by the tendency to equality and entireness in 

 both its mandibles, and, above all, by the palate being produced almost to 

 the cutting edges which yet are trenchant throughout ; fossed and mem- 

 braned nares, the apertures of which are almost or wholly hid by a setaceous 

 frontal zone: nude orbits : soft, rounded, and feeble wings : a longish, 

 gradated, bowed, and feeble tail : high, stout, corvine, legs and 

 feet, the thumbs of which are large and partially flat-soled, as in 

 Corvus, Pica, Garrulus, &c., but not in Tardus. In the general form 

 of the wings, tail, and feet, there is a much closer connexion with Pica an^i 

 Garrulus than with Tardus. And this corvine analogy is strengthened by 

 the anteal development and setaceous character of the frontal zo'ie of fea- 

 thers ; by the partial nudity of the orbits ; by the similarity <^f the sexes ; 

 by the manners, the voices, and the soft discomposes^ plumage of the 

 Cinclosomce ; and, lastly, by the considerable mtiscular poAver of their 

 stomachs and omnivorous regimen. But, on the other hand, the thick 



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