attitudes, reminded me most forcibly of my old friends of the Atlantic groves, although, under other circumstances, the resemblance was sufficiently obvious. But, besides their traits of character, there is a striking resemblance in the organization of the two species; the bill, for instance of _M. rufus_, when compared with the bills of its congeners, _M. polyglottus_, _M. carolinensis_, and others, is found to be greatly elongated and much curved, and in this lengthened and curved bill (to say nothing of the shorter wings and longer tail) may easily be discerned a decided approach to the remarkable form developed in _T. rediviva_, and other closely allied species. This coincidence of a similarity of organization with a similarity of manners is, I think, sufficiently marked to show a close relationship between the two species; or, in other words, to indicate _M. rufus_ as the connecting link between these two distinct genera. “The song of the California bird is far superior to that of the Thrush,—though it must be admitted that he has not the powerful voice of our Mocking bird, that prince of songsters, nor his imitative powers; but he certainly has a liquid mellowness of tone united with clearness of expression and volubility of utterance that cannot be surpassed. On the first occasion on which it was my good fortune to hear this bird fairly tune his pipes to sound a roundelay, the performer was perched upon the bare branch of an ancient oak, and his farewell carol to the departing day was delivered with a warmth and pathos so truly wonderful as to fill me with admiration and delight; and though I was then anxious to procure birds for the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy, I scarcely thought of molesting him whose vesper chaunt had just enlivened that wild, secluded vale! I cannot, even now, without a tweak of contrition and self-reproach, acknowledge that the desire to procure a ‘specimen’ prompted me, some time afterwards, to shoot a bird of this species. “This almost sacrilegious act, I feel bound to confess, met with a just reward; for, having placed my prize on the branch of a neighboring tree, in order to preserve its plumage unruffled, while I continued my pursuit after game (for the larder as well as for the cabinet) I had the mortification, on my return, to find that some savage wild animal, as little impressed by soul-stirring music, I might almost say, as myself, had made a hasty supper off my divine songster, feathers and all.” Dr. Heermann, in his manuscript notes, through his kindness now in our possession, thus mentions the present bird:—