SYNALLAXIS. 147 
elsewhere, eighteen occurring also in South America. In Mexico and Guatemala 
the family is but poorly represented, but the numbers, both of genera and species, 
increase as the mainland of South America is approached. 
Subfam. SYNALLAXINA. 
SYNALLAXIS. 
Synallaxis, Vieillot, N. Dict. d’Hist. N. xxxii. p. 309 (1819); Scl. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xv. 
p. 37. 
Until recently this genus was made to include a ten tail-feathered and a twelve 
tail-feathered section. The former is now restricted to Synallaxis proper, and the 
latter is referred to Siptornis. 
According to Mr. Sclater’s recently published Catalogue, Synallaxis contains twenty- 
eight species, but the names of five others are given of which no specimens exist in 
the British Museum. The twenty-eight species are separated into seven sections 
defined chiefly by their colour. Sections II. and IV. are the only ones represented in 
our country: Section II. by S. albescens and S. pudica, in which the crown and the 
wings outwardly are rufous and the tail brown; and Section IV. by S. erythrothoraa, 
in which the whole upper surface is nearly uniform rufous brown, and the breast and 
wings externally chestnut. 
This last-named bird is the only one which reaches Southern Mexico, so that its 
range is that of the genus in this direction. 
S. albescens and S. pudica are both South-American birds, the former with a wide 
range reaching even to the Argentine Republic. The latter occurs also in Colombia 
and Ecuador. 
The bill in S. erythrothorax is moderate, the culmen slightly arched and without a 
notch near the end of the tomia of the maxilla, the nostrils are overhung by a mem- 
brane, the opening being a long slit on the lower edge of the nasal fossa; the wings 
are short and much rounded, the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh quills being nearly 
equal. ‘The tarsi are moderately long and the toes and claws slender, the outer toe 
separate from the middle toe nearly to the base. The tail is moderately long and 
much rounded, the lateral feathers about half the length of the middle ones; all are 
pointed, and the barbs towards the end nearly destitute of barbules. The number of 
rectrices is ten. 
1. Synallaxis albescens. 
Synallawis albescens, Temm. Pl. Col. 227. fig. 2 (27th Sept., 1823); Salv. P. Z. S. 1867, p. 143?; 
Scl. P. Z.S. 1874, p.9°; Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xv. p. 43‘; Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1879, p. 521°. 
Synallaxis albigularis, Scl. P. Z. 8S. 1858, p. 63°. 
19* 
