CHAP. XVIII.] 
BIRDS. 
257 
This immense family, comprising all the birds usually known 
as “warblers/’ is, as here constituted, of almost universal distri- 
bution. Yet it is so numerous and preponderant over the whole 
Eastern Hemisphere, that it may be well termed an Old-World 
group ; only two undoubted genera with very few species belong- 
ing to the Neurotic region, while two or three others whose posi- 
tion is somewhat doubtful, are found in California and the 
N eotropical region. 
Canon Tristram, who has paid great attention to this difficult 
group, has kindly communicated to me a MSS. arrangement of 
the genera and species, which, with a very few additions and 
alterations, I implicitly follow. He divides the Sylviidse into 
seven sub-families, as follows : 
1. Drymoecinse (15 genera 194 sp.), confined to the Old World 
and Australia, and especially abundant in the three Tropical 
regions. 2. Calamoherpinse (11 genera, 75 sp.), has the same 
general distribution as the last, but is scarce in the Australian and 
abundant in the Palsearctie region; 3. Phylloscopinee (11 genera, 
139 sp.), has the same distribution as the entire family, but is 
most abundant in the Oriental and P alee arctic regions. 4. Syl- 
viinee (6 genera, 33 sp.), most abundant in the Paleearctic region, 
very scarce in the Australian and Oriental regions, absent from 
America. 5. Euticillinse (10 genera, 50 sp.); entirely absent from 
America and Australia ; abounds in the Oriental and Paleearctic 
regions. 6. Saxicolinse (12 genera, 126 sp.), absent from America 
(except the extreme north-west), abundant in the Oriental region 
and moderately so in the Pal se arctic, Ethiopian, and Australian. 7. 
Accentorinse (6 genera, 21 sp.), absent from the Ethiopian region 
and South America, most abundant in Australia, one small genus 
(Sicdia), in North America. 
The distribution of the several genera arranged under these 
sub-families, is as follows : 
1. I)RYM(EcmiE. — ( 736 ) Ortkotomus (13 sp.), all the Oriental 
region; ( 737 ) Prinia (11 sp.), all the Oriental region ; ( 78e 740 742 
746) Drymceca (83 sp.), Ethiopian and Oriental regions, most 
abundant in the former ; ( 743 10 745 find 749 10 752 ) Cisticola (32 sp.), 
Ethiopian and Oriental regions, with South Europe, China 
VOL. II. s 
