BIOLOGIA CENTRALI-AMERICANA. 
ZOOLOGIA. 
Class AVES. 
Subclass AVES CARINAT &. 
Order PASSERES. 
Suborder OLIGOMYOD. 
Fam. OXYRHAMPHIDZ. 
OXYRHAMPHUS. 
Oxyrhamphus, Strickland, Ann. & Mag. N. H. vi. p. 420 (1841); Scl. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xiv. 
p. 280. 
Oxyrhynchus, Temminck, Pl. Col. livr. 21, 1823 (nec Leach). 
Oxyruncus, Temminck, Anal. du Syst. gén. d’Orn. in Man. d’Orn. ed. 2, 1. p. Ixxx (1820). 
Oxyrhamphus is a genus of obscure affinities and its position cannot be satisfactorily 
determined until the internal structure of one of the species has been carefully studied. 
From an examination of its external characters it has been usually placed by recent. 
authors with the Dendrocolaptide or as an independent Family. Under our Las 
‘knowledge the latter position seems the most convenient. 
The coloration of the plumage of Oxyrhamphus recalls that of Phibalura, a genus of 
Cotingide, but the form of the bill has no resemblance to that of Phibalura nor has its 
plumage anything in common with any recognized member of the Dendrocolaptide. 
The bill of O. frater (and of both the other species) is acute, the culmen slightly 
curved, and the tomia nearly straight, with a small angle near the commissure; the 
nostrils are elongated open slits along the lower edge of the nasal fossa and have an 
operculum thickened along its lower edge along the upper margin. The rictal bristles 
are very short. The wings have ten primaries, of which the second, third, and fourth 
are the longest, the first being a little longer than the fifth and rather more pointed. 
The barbs of the central portion of the outer web of the outermost primary, in the 
male, have their extremities destitute of barbules, and these bare points turned rather 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Aves, Vol. II., December 1888. | 1 
