174 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 



thus became imperative, and the results of the study are pre- 

 sented herewith. In undertaking it we have examined no less 

 than four hundred and sixty specimens, of which one hundred 

 and eighty-three are in the collection of the Carnegie Museum. 

 The remainder were loaned for the purpose by the authorities 

 of the following institutions: the United States National Mu- 

 seum, the American Museum of Natural History, the Museum 

 of the Brooklyn Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Goeldi 

 Museum of Para, Brazil, the Museum Paulista of Sao Paulo, 

 Brazil, and the National Museum of Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

 To the several parties in charge of the collections in these muse- 

 ums the writer takes this opportunity of again returning his 

 thanks for their uniform courtesy. His acknowledgments are 

 also due to Dr. Ernst Hartert, not only for examining Lichten- 

 stein's type-specimen in Berlin, but also for furnishing certain 

 data on specimens in the Tring Museum. As in other systematic 

 papers by the present writer, all references have been personally 

 verified. Measurements are in millimeters, that for the bill 

 being of the exposed culmen, and unless otherwise stated are 

 based on a series of ten specimens of each sex. The names of 

 colors correspond as a rule to those in Mr. Ridgway's "Color 

 Standards and Color Nomenclature." 



Genus Pipromorpha Gray. 



Pipromorpha Bonaparte, Ann. Sci. Nat.,Zool., (4), I, 1854, 134 (ex Schiff, 

 MS.; no type or included species designated!). — Gray, Cat. Gen. and 

 Subgen. Birds, 1855, 146 (Muscicapa oleaginea Lichtenstein designated as 

 type). — Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Heineanum, II, 1859, 55 (ref. orig. 

 publ.; list of species). — Gray, Hand-List Birds, I, 1869, 355 (list of 

 species).— GiEBEL, Thes. Orn., Ill, 1877, 203 (list of species).— Water- 

 house, Ind. Gen. Avium, 1889, 173 (ref. orig. publ.). — Ridgway, Bull. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 50, IV, 1907, 345, 452 (diag.; key to forms). 



The earliest known species of the group was Muscicapa oleaginea, 

 described by Lichtenstein in 1823. A second species, Mionectes rufwentris, 

 was described from southern Brazil by Cabanis in 1845, and associated with 

 the other. In 1854 Bonaparte made use of the term Pipromorpha in a 

 nominal list of genera, but without any diagnosis or indication of the type 

 or included species. Pipromorpha is thus a nomen nudum at this place, 

 and must date from G. R. Gray, 1855, who designated its type as Musci- 

 capa oleaginea Lichtenstein. By most authors, however, it was merged 

 with Mionectes, until the appearance of the fourth part of Mr. Ridgway's 



