Vol. 31, pp. 203-204 December 30, 1918 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



THE STATUS OF THE GENUS ORCHILUS CABANIS. 



BY HARRY C. OBERHOLSER. 



The generic name Orchilus Cabanis was first proposed in 

 1845 for a genus of South American Tyrannidae.* It origin- 

 ally included the following four species: (1) Euscarthmus 

 cinereicollis Maximilian= Orc/w7ws auricularis (Vieillot) ; (2) Eu- 

 scarthmus superciliaris Maximilian= Habrura pectoralis (Vieil- 

 lot); (3) Orchilus pileatus Cabanis= Lophotriccus squamae- 

 cristus (Lafresnaye) ; (4) Orchilus rufipes Cabanis. No type 

 is mentioned in the original description, but by common con- 

 sent it seems to have been, up to the present time, universally 

 regarded as Platyrhynchus auricularis Vieillot. The earliest 

 designation of a type for Orchilus Cabanis seems to be that of 

 Gray in 1855, f who selected Orchilus pileatus Cabanis, which, 

 as above indicated, is the same as Todirostrum squamaecristum 

 Lafresnaye. This consequently makes the generic name 

 Orchilus Cabanis identical in application with Lophotriccus 

 Berlepsch.J Fortunately for the name Lophotriccus, however, 

 Orchilus Cabanis is preoccupied by Orchilus Morris, § and is, 

 therefore, automatically disposed of in the synonymy of Lopho- 

 triccus. 



This leaves the present genus Orchilus without a name, since 



• Fauna Peruana, Aves, 1845, pp. 24, 164. 



tCat. Gen, and Subgen. Birds, 1855, p. 50. 



t Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1883, p. 553 (Type, Todirostrum spicifer Lafresnaye). 



SOrchilus Morris, The Naturalist (ed. Neville Wood), III, No. 9, June. 1837, p. 124. 

 This genus, of which no type was originally mentioned, contained two species — Orchilus 

 cristatus=Regulus cristatus Koch^Motacilla regulus Linnaeus; and Orchilus ignica- 

 pillus=Sylvia ignicapilla Temminck. Neither of these species has yet been selected aa 

 the type of Orchilus Morris, and since this name must now apparently be used in place 

 of Regulus Cuvier. for Motacilla regulus Linnaeus and its allies (cf. Richmond, Proc. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., LIU, 1917, p. 620), we hereby designate Sylvia ignicapilla Temminck 

 (Brehm MS.) as the type of Orchilus Morris. 



48— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 31, 1918. (203) 



