Page:Birds of North and Middle America partV Ridgway.djvu/36

8 Family FORMICARIIDÆ. THE ANTBIRDS.


 * Myiotheridæ, Isis, 1826, 973. — , Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867, 471, in text.
 * > Eriodoridæ, Wiegmann'a Archiv für Naturg., 1847, pt. i, 209, 336 (includea Pteroptochidæ, Pittidæ, and Menuridæ!).
 * > Formicariidæ, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1858, 202; Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 170 (includes Conopophagidæ). — , Handb. Zool., 1868, 268.
 * < Eriodoridæ and, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 11 (excludes Formicariidæ, part).
 * X Hypocnemididæ and, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 1 (includes Pittidæ and Conopophagidæ; excludes Formicariidæ, part).
 * = Formicariidæ, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1877, 452. — , Stand. Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 477. — and , Biol. Centr.-Am., A es, ii, 1892, 193.
 * = Formicariinæ, Bronn's Thier-Reicha, Vög., ii, 1891, 276.

Tracheophone Mesomyodian Passeres with the metasternum 2- notched, tensor patagii brevis tendon normally passerine, interorbital septum perforate, postorbital process large (sometimes joining the processus squamosi), maxillopalatines strap-shaped (crossing posterior end of the olfactory fossa and passing backward beyond the level of the median descending plate of the palatine); vomer long and broad; nares holorhinal, the anterior nares inclosed by a bony wall, leaving a wide aperture at proximal end of nasal fossa between the premaxillary and the descending process of the nasal; syrinx tracheal, one pair of tracheo-bronchial muscles arising from the trachea and attached to one or more of the bronchial semirings, or else one pair inserted on distal end of the trachea; mesorhinium normal; nostrils not conspicuously (often not at all) operculate; tarsal envelope taxaspidean or holaspidean, or fused (nonscutellate); basal phalanx of middle toe more or less united to lateral toes, usually for at least half its length to outer toe, for less than half to inner toe, in some genera also united for part of second phalanx to outer toe; outer toe decidedly shorter than middle toe and slightly longer than inner toe; hallux as long as inner toe or slightly to decidedly shorter, slightly stouter to much stouter; claws moderate in size and curvature to short and slightly curved, that of the hallux always shorter than the digit; maxilla with tip more or less conspicuously uncinate, with distinct subterminal tomial notch, the mandibular tomium also notched subterminally (this notch sometimes minute or indistinct, however). Wing moderate in size to rather large, more or less conspicuously concave beneath, always much rounded, but usually with longer primaries extending decidedly beyond secondaries; tenth (outermost) primary never more than three-fourths as long as the longest, usually about three-fifths to two-thirds as long. Tail variable as to relative length, rarely longer than wing, usually shorter 