t 



190 CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



toothless. This, I am sure, will be evident to any careful observer ; 

 who will further remark the different shaped tails, and the absence in 

 the tit of the ferocious look and strong-built head of the flusher. The 

 tooth is so plainly visible in the Lanius family, that it must at once 

 decide the question, and completely sever the new-formed connexion 

 between the shrikes and bearded tits. Though I am a novice in the 

 science, and perhaps rather too presuming, I cannot but think Laniellus 

 an unfit term, and would rather place this tit in the genus Muscicapa, 

 to which, in its general form, and in its shape of bill, it is rather more 

 nearly allied ; but closer observation will, no doubt, assimilate it yet 

 farther, or form of it a distinct genus. — Wm. Fowler. 

 1, Poland-street, 9th March, 1833. 



[I thought it right to submit the preceding to Mr. Blyth, before I published it; and 

 the following are his remarks, given, as it appears to me, in the genuine spirit of a lover 

 of truth and candour. — Editor.] 



On the bearded tit. — On reconsideration, I admit that I was 

 perhaps too hasty in placing this species in the shrike family, 

 (Laniana,) though I am still of opinion that the bearded tit resembles 

 the shrikes in several particulars, more than it does any other group 

 of birds. The article was written from an observation of the living 

 bird ; and if an alive bearded tit be taken into the hand, and exam- 

 ined, especially if it be an old bird, the resemblance of its physiognomy 

 to that of a shrike is very striking ; as in the various members of that 

 family the upper mandible of the bill is curved and pointed, though 

 undoubtedly very weak in comparison with those birds and it has 

 also a very distinct rudiment of a tooth or notch, the latter, however, 

 cannot well be observed in a stuffed specimen, unless very recently 

 preserved, as the bill of the bearded tit is so soft and delicate, that it 

 shrinks considerably as it becomes dry ; the colour also of the beak 

 changes in drying from a fine yellow to a dark reddish brown. Let it 

 be observed also, that in many of the smaller shrikes the bill is very 

 small and weak, and the tooth far from being well defined ; I allude 

 to the smaller species at present ranking in the genus Lanius, but for 

 which the term Collurio has, I believe, lately been proposed as a ge- 

 neric appellation. The flusher (Lanius Collurio, Linn.) can hardly be 

 adduced as an example, as it is one of the strongest formed birds that 

 can range under the generic name Collurio : but the weakness of 

 structure in many of the smaller shrikes fully entitles them, I consi- 

 der, to be separated from the genus Lanius ; and although the flusher 



