Zoological Illustrations Series II/Plate 57
CULICIVORA atricapilla.
Black-crowned Gnatcatcher.
CULICIVORA atricapilla.
Black crowned Warbler.
Family, Sylviadæ. Sub-family, Sylvianæ. Nob.
(See North Zool. Vol. 2.)
Generic Character.
Culicivora. Swains. in Zool. Journ. No. 11. Lesson Man. 2. p. 430.
Bill very slender, the base depressed, the sides compressed, the culmen arched from the base. Nostrils long; aperture linear and naked; rictus bearded. Wings remarkably short. Tail slender, graduated, and generally lengthened.
Specific Character.
Above cinereous, beneath white; upper part of the head, middle tail feathers, and base of the three outer feathers deep black. Quills blackish, with white and grey margins.
Figuier à tête noir de Cayenne? Pl. Enl. pl. 704. f. 1.?
The birds composing this natural but intricate group, have hitherto been found only in America. Scarcely superior in size to the Gold-crested Wrens, they exhibit much of the same activity and restlessness in searching after insects. Yet their manners, in other respects, are more in unison with those of the flycatching birds.
In size and in structure, our bird perfectly accords with the Sylvia cærulea of Vieil, and represents that northern species in tropical America, but we are fearful of identifying it with that figured in the Pl. Enl. Our drawings are of the natural size; in both these species the bill perfectly resembles that of Prinia. Horsf. except in being somewhat shorter: the feet, however, are those of Setophaga, Swains. The Flycatchers and Warblers, are so blended together, by all writers, that we have not yet been able to discover the typical example of this group. Its true affinities, however, appear to be as follows:—
Culicivora is represented in Africa by Drymoica, Sw., in India by Prinia, Horsf., and in Australia by Malurus, Vieil. These genera, in conjunction with that of Sylvia, seem to indicate the first typical circle of this family. Culicivora exhibits many singular characters; in some approaching to Prinia, the tail is very short: others, shewing an affinity to Sylvia, have yellow crests: while a few species, leading to Setophaga, present us with the depressed bill of a Flycatcher.