APPENDIX, No. II.
By Mr. SWAINSON.
Family, LANIADjE.
By the analogy which exists between the Ceblepyrinas and the Grallatores, the singular
fleshy lobes on the bill of C. lobatus and of other species is at once illustrated. We find
appendages precisely similar in the Spur-winged Plovers of New Holland and India. Nay,
so beautifully and regularly has Nature preserved these relations, that if the Charadriadoe
really form the Tenuirostral division of the Grallatores, then the Ceblepyrina, occupying precisely
the same relative station in the circle of the Laniadce, actually represent the Chara-
driadtB ; in other words, both these groups, being the farthest removed from their respective
types, become parallel to each other, and mutually represent the Tenuirostres. These lobated
Caterpillar-catchers constitute, according to our views, the sub-typical genus, which requires
to be defined and named ; but we have not, at present, sufficient space to give the necessary
reasons for this projected arrangement.
TYRANNINiE.
That these obscurely known Tyrant Fly-catchers, so difficult to define by descriptions, may
be better understood by figures, we here add the woodcuts of their heads, accurately drawn
the size of life. The size of the bill in
TYRANNUS BOREALIS,
and the strongly defined notch of the upper mandible, will bring this species within the limits
of the typical group ; although, from the greater quills not being distinctly notched on their
inner margin, it bears a very close affinity to Tyrannula Saya. In
TYRANNULA PUSILLA,
the breadth of the bill and the relative proportions in the length of the quill feathers deserve
attention. Mr. Audubon has figured, as new species, two or three small Fly-catchers, closely
resembling those of Wilson’s and the two here characterized; but as they are not described
with the requisite precision, it is impossible to determine what are their distinguishing characters.
In
TYRANNULA RICHARDSONII
Family, SYLVIADiE.
In reference to our remarks on the genus Erythaca, we feel persuaded that both Sialia
and Petro'ica*, Sw., are types of form or sub-genera; Sialia being the Fissirostral type, the
great length of its wings, the emarginated lesser quills, its glossy plumage, and its migratory
habits, all confirming this view of its natural relations. The union of the Saxicolince with
the Parlance, by means of the sub-genus Petroica, is so complete by the recent acquisition
of another new species, sent us from Van Diemen’s Land, that we can scarcely determine to
which genus it truly belongs.
Our suspicions regarding the situation of Hyliota have proved correct: it does not belong
to this family. By a singular chance, we detected among our friend Mr. Burchell’s African
birds the Tenuirostral type of the Sylviance, perfectly corresponding with the same type in
the circle of the MerulincB. This latter, we believe, only exists in the Paris Museum.
* Zool. Must., Second Series, pi. 36.