Gen.   Zoothera, Vigors.

Syn.- -Myiothera, Tern, (partly), and Myiophaga, Less, (partly).

Char. - Bill longer than the head, compressed, slightly curved ; upper mandible with hooked tip, produced over the lower ; wings somewhat short; 1st quill very short; 4th and 5th sub-equal and longest, 3rd nearly as long; tail short, even, broad ; tarsus moderate, about; equal to the middle toe ; lateral toes nearly equal, hind toe somewhat long; claws moderately curved.

These birds form a genus of a few remarkable species, which are usually classed with the Merulinae. Bonaparte latterly classed it with the Thrushes; but, formerly, I think, he, more discriminately, placed it among his Cinclidae. He makes it consist of four species, one of which, Z. cinclops, is, says the Prince, intermediate between  Zoothera and Cinclus. This has been since removed from Zoothera, and forms the type of the genus Cinclops. Blyth :dso places Zoothera with the Thrushes, as do Gray and Horsfield. It is, indeed, a link between the two sub-families, and might be classed with either; but its short-tail, Pittine bill, and its affinity for Anthocincla, Blyth, a remarkable new bird from Burmah, has decided me to place it at the end of this family.*