IORA SCAPULARIS. 
cular, is comparatively of great strength, and the sharp, erect, transparent, cutting 
edges, or tomia, afford a striking peculiarity : they are bounded by a straight line, 
and, in the upper mandible, have a notch at the extremity, which, though small, is 
very distinct, The bill, at the base, is broader than high, and very gradually and 
uniformly attenuated, so as to resemble a wedge. In Sylvia, on the contrary, the 
bill is slender, awl-shaped, and the sides are strongly rounded ; the edges are bent 
inward ; the lower mandible is small at the base, and the height of the bill exceeds 
the breadth : it is likewise considerably shorter than the head. 
The wings are proportionally shorter in Iora than in the second section of 
Sylvia ; the quill feathers, from the fourth, in some instances from the third, to the 
seventh, are slightly eraarginate exteriorly ; and the almost equal length of these 
feathers, from the third to the eighth, renders the wings strictly obtuse. The tail, 
in proportion to the body, is shorter than in most sections of the genus Sylvia, which, 
however, considerably differ from each other in this point. The tarsi have the same 
proportional length as in Sylvia, but the toes are more robust ; the outer toe is united 
to the middle toe at the base. The claws, although compressed above, present, in 
the adult specimens, a character which appears to be the consequence of the pecu- 
liar habits of our bird : the points are much worn, and have the appearance of being 
used in scraping the bark of trees ; the laminae, or plates which compose them, are 
often forcibly separated, and marked with slight scaly inequalities and fissures. 
In keeping the Iora scapularis distinct from the extensive and multifarious 
genus Sylvia, and in proposing it as the type of a new genus, I gladly avail 
myself of the recent example of the celebrated M. Temminck, in a similar case. In 
the 29th Number of the Planches coloriees, he has figured two birds from Brazil, 
exhibiting the type of a new American genus, which he lias named Hylophii.us. 
This genus resembles Iora in the strength of the bill, in the shortness of the wings, 
and in the rotundity of the tail ; but it has a bill shorter in proportion to the head, 
more strictly wedge-shaped, tending more suddenly to a sharp point, and, in the 
figure, no notch is apparent, and the broad transparent cutting edges, which afford 
a distinguishing character to Iora, are not perceptible. I regret that M. Temminck 
has not given in the Number which contains the figures, a definition of the characters 
of this genus ; but they are sufficiently evident to illustrate the views according to 
which he has established this genus. 
The entire length of the Iora scapularis is 6ve inches and a half; its weight 
four drams and one fourth. The general colour of the upper parts is olive green, 
