476 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



The plant-cutters are charged with being extremely injurious to the farmers, since 

 with their serrated bills they cut the young and tender sprouts and buds, doing great 

 damage to the plantations where they occur in any numbers. Their habits are said 

 to resemble those of the tanagers of the genus Saltator. Being a ' clamatorial ' bird, 

 the Phytotoma has a cry which " could not be much more disagreeable, as it resem- 

 bles the noise made by the grating of the teeth of one saw against those of another." 



We have already designated the tracheophonous mesomyodic Passeres as FOR- 

 MICAROIDE^E, or ant-birds, and it remains now only to treat briefly of the different 

 families belonging to the super-family defined in the above words. At the outset, 

 however, we may remark that the present group, which embraces about five hundred 

 species, is absolutely confined to the Neotropical Region, not a single species being 

 known to occur, even accidentally, within the limits of North America, nor have any 

 ever been found in any part of the Old World. It is also noteworthy that this super- 

 family is entirely absent from the West Indies. 



In having depressed beaks and exaspidean tarsi, the CONOPOPHAGID^E agree with 

 the tyrant-birds, with which they are most commonly classed. Their position in 

 the present super-family, however, is clearly dictated by the tracheal position of the 

 syrinx, which, by the way, has no intrinsic muscles. That their correct place is here, 

 is furthermore demonstrated by several other features, in which they agree especially 

 with members of the following family, the Pteroptochidoe, viz., the four-notched ster- 

 num and the quasi-picarian insertion of the tensor patagii brevis tendon, the returning 

 portion of which is concealed by the muscular fibres at the origin of the extensor 

 metacarpi muscle, as discovered by Forbes. 



This family comprises two genera, if Corythopis really belongs here, and a little 

 more than a dozen species, confined to tropical South America. They are small birds, 

 of sparrow-size and smaller, Conopophaga, with extremely short tail, and the typical 

 species with a white, silky feather-pencil behind the eyes. The ant-pipits, as Corytho- 

 pis may be termed, have normal tails and a general resemblance in form and colora- 

 tion to the oscinine pipits. Sundevall places this genus with the Formicariidae. Very 

 little, if anything, is known in regard to the habits of these birds. 



Like the foregoing family, the PTEROPTOCHID.E have a four-notched sternum, and 

 a masked passerine insertion of the tensor patagii brevis, but their tarsi are taxaspi- 

 dean. In their palate, however, they exhibit quite an oscinine feature, their maxillo- 

 palatines being slender processes curved backwards. In their external appearance 

 some of them, at least, resemble the wrens very much, so much, indeed, that one of 

 the earliest known species of the family was originally described as Troglodytes para- 

 doxus, and some of the young ficytalopus are amazingly like our winter-wren. In 

 this respect, as also in the four-notched sternum, they agree with the Australian genus 

 Atrichornis, and might have fitly been termed ant-wrens, had the latter name not 

 already been given to another group of the Tracheophonre. From the true wrens 

 they are easily distinguished externally by the long first (tenth) primary, the taxas- 

 pidean tarsus, and the peculiar operculum overhanging the nostrils. The family con- 

 sists of less than two dozen species, most of which are restricted to the zoological 

 province embracing Chili and western Patagonia, two generic types being entirely 

 peculiar to this region. 



In accordance with their skulking habits, the general coloration of the Pteropto- 

 chidaa is dusky brownish, or blackish, and none are especially remarkable, either on 

 account of color or any striking external peculiarity, except, perhaps, Acropternis 



