oberholser: spizixidae, new family op birds 15 



and long, occupying more than one-half the total length of bird; wings 

 moderately short and rounded, the first primary spurious, but more 

 than half the length of the second, and the tertials short ; feet of moderate 

 size; tarsi short, and scutellate, but sometimes rather indistinctly so; 

 claws of moderate size. 



Type genus. — Spizixos Blyth. 



Remarks. — This new family seems to be a considerably specialized 

 offshoot of the Timaliine stem. In its nuchal hairs, feet, tarsi, and 

 general characters, it is evidently related, at least in a general way, to 

 the Pycnonotidae. So far as we can judge from its external structure 

 it does not exhibit any distinctively corvine, parine, or fringilline char- 

 acters. Of the genera composing the family Pycnonotidae, the Spizixidae 

 seem most closely allied to Criniger Temminck. In the closely covered 

 nostrils they resemble the Irenidae, but are, of course, otherwise differ- 

 ent, and apparently lead from Criniger in the Pycnonotidae to the 

 Irenidae. 



The two species and the two additional subspecies which make up 

 this new family of birds, are all at present included in the genus Spizixos 

 Bl)rth, A new genus is, however, needed for one of the species, and by 

 the institution of this a new alignment of forms will necessarily follow. 



Spizixos Blyth. 



Spizixos Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Bengal 14: 571. August, 1845. 

 (Type by monotypy, Spizixos canifrons Blyth). 



Generic characters. — Conspicuously crested; wing longer than tail; 

 bill relatively less elevated, its height at base less than the length of 

 gonys; subterminal commissiu^al tooth of maxilla strongly developed, 

 its infero-posterior salient angle sharp, about equal to a right angle, its 

 anterior upper edge slightly concave to tip of bill. 



Type. — Spizixos canifrons Blyth. 



Remarks. — ^The type is the sole species, though this genus also in- 

 cludes a recently described subspecies.^ The forms of this group are, 

 therefore, Spizixos canifrons canifrons Blyth, Spizixos canifrons in- 

 grami Bangs & Phillips. 



Cophixus,^ gen. nov. 



Generic characters. — Similar to Spizixos Blyth, but head not crested; 

 wing shorter than tail; bill relatively more elevated, its height at base 

 at least equal to the length of gonys, often more; subterminal com- 

 missural tooth of maxilla less strongly developed, its infero-posterior 



^ Spizixus canifrons ingrami. Bangs & Phillips. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 58: 

 285. April, 1914. (Mengtsze, Yunnan, China.) 

 » Kwipda- obtusus; ixus = ^^i<^ , viscum. 



