Vol. XXV, pp. 97-102 May 4, 1912 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



/ 



DIAGNOSES OF SOME NEW GENERA OF AMERICAN- 

 BIRDS . 



RY ROBERT RIDGWAY, 



Curator, Division of Birds, U. S. National Museum. 



[Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.] 



In preparing keys to the genera of families to be included in 

 Part VI of the "Birds of North and Middle America," the 

 writer has found it necessary to establish several new groups, 

 which are briefly diagnosed below. 



Ecchaunornis gen. nov. 



Type, Bucco radiatus Sclater. 



Similar to Nyslalus Cabanis and Heine,* but differing in relatively 

 much shorter and less compressed l>ill (culmen, from base, much less than 

 half as long as wing), its width at nostrils equal t<> about one-third the 

 length of exposed culmen. 



(Ekxo-vvoui, T puff up; 8pvis, a bird. ) 



Species: Ecchaunornis radiatus (Sclater); Ecchaunornis radiatus ful- 

 i idus (Salvin and Godman ). 



Systellura gen. nov. 



Type. Stenopsis ruficervix Sclater. 



Nearest Stenopsis, but differing in the relatively much shorter and less 

 distinctly emarginate tail and very different style of coloration, the sexes 

 not conspicuously different in color and the adult male with lateral rec- 

 trices not mostly white. 



( I would restrict Steno]>sis to S. cayennensis, with, possibly, *S'. candi- 

 cans, a species I have not been able to examine. ) 



(2u<ttA\w, to abridge; ovpd, tail.) 



Species: Systellura ruficervix (Sclater). 



* Xystalus Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., iv, Heft. 1, Jan.. 1863, 139. Type, Alcedo 

 maculata Gmelin. 



17— Proc. BlOL. SOC. Wash., Vol.. XXV, 1912. , (9/j 



