unquestionably associates it with Lanius, although the tarsi are somewhat shorter,
and the claws not of that fine and acute make, which would lead us to believe
they were used to secure the prey of the bird. The tail is long, considerably
graduated, and narrow; in all which it assimilates to Lamus corvims. But the bill
is the great characteristic of this bird: it preserves, indeed, something of the
general form of Lanius, being short; bnt it is withal so slender, that it can only
be compared to the outer half of the bill of a stout Thrush. Now, if any Shrike
can be supposed to represent the Tenuirostres in its own circle, we should certainly
suspect this to be the form under which such an analogy would appear.
However this may Be, it is not only far removed from the typical species, but
exhibits no medium of communication between Lanius and Thamnophilus.
These are all the modifications of form, sufficiently important to be noticed,
which we have yet detected in this group; from which it appears that their circular
succession remains for future discovery. Much information is also to be supplied
before any decisive opinion can be formed on the value of these distinctions; and
still more impossible is it to separate, at present, the genera from the sub-genera.
may cite the recently-named genus Monarcha, the characters of which were published in 1822 (Zoological Illuslra-
tions, O.S., pi. 147.); the genus named Colluriaoma, first pointed out by us in 1825; and the genus, since called
Tropidarhynchus, which we had previously named in the Zool. Journal, and, but for these anticipations, should have
characterized in the same work. See Zool. Journal, 1. 480.