This new family is adopted, at the suggestion of Professor Newton, to include some peculiar groups of Himalayan birds whose position has usually been among the Timaliidæ or the Paridæ, but which are now found to be allied to our Bearded Reedling. The supposed affinity of this bird for the Tits has been long known to be erroneous, and the family Panuridæ was formed for its reception (Yarrell's _British Birds_, 4th edit. p. 512). The genera having hitherto been widely scattered in systematic works, are referred to by the numbers of Mr. G. E. Gray's _Hand List_. (1901) _Paradoxornis_ (3 sp.), Himalayas and East Thibet; (1904) _Conostoma_ (1 sp.), Himalayas and East Thibet; (876) _Suthora_ (8 sp.), Himalayas to North-west China, Formosa; (877) _Chlenasicus_ (1 sp.), Darjeeling; (887) _Panurus_ (1 sp.), Central and Southern Europe; (1902) _Heteromorpha_ (1 sp.), Nepal, 10,000 feet altitude; _Cholornis_ (1 sp.), Moupin in East Thibet. FAMILY 5.--CINCLIDÆ. (4 Genera, 27 Species.) GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. __________________________________/\__________________________________ / \ NEOTROPICAL| NEARCTIC |PALÆARCTIC | ETHIOPIAN | ORIENTAL | AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS. -----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ | | | | | -- 2. 3 -- | -- 2 -- 4 |1. 2. 3. 4 |-- -- -- ?4|1. 2. 3. 4 |1 -- -- -- | | | | | {263}The Cinclidæ consist of a number of more or less thrush-like ground-birds, of which the most remarkable are the Dippers, forming the genus _Cinclus_. These are curiously distributed, from the Palæarctic region as a centre, to the alpine districts of North and South America; while the three genera which are here included as somewhat allied to _Cinclus_, all inhabit the Oriental region. The genera which I class in this family are the following:-- (978) _Cinclus_ (9 sp.), Palæarctic region to West China and Formosa, Rocky Mountains, and Mexico in North America, and southward to the Andes of Peru; (916) _Enicurus_ (9 sp.), Himalayas to Java and West China; (979) _Eupetes_ (4 sp.), Indo-Malay sub-region and New Guinea; (971) _Myiophonus_ (5 sp.), Himalayas to Ceylon, Java, South China, and Formosa. (981) _Mesites_ (1 sp.), Madagascar, is an anomalous bird placed with _Eupetes_ by Mr. G. R. Gray, but of very uncertain affinities. FAMILY 6.--TROGLODYTIDÆ. (17 Genera, 94 Species.)