44 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



(notably "5." rufns). The various attempts at subdivision, however, 

 have either proven faihires, ou account of the gradual transition between 

 the two extremes in certain characters, or unsatisfactory, by reason of 

 the line having been varionsly drawn by different authors.* As long 

 ago as 185S, however, the line separating Methrioptents from Harpor- 

 hijmhus appears to have been properly drawn, by Professor Baird in a 

 "Synopsis of the species" under the heading of the latter, on p. 348 of 

 " Birds of Xorth America." While, however, arranging the species in a 

 table under the two separate headings {Harporhymhus including redivi- 

 vus, lecontei, and crissalis, Methriopterm comprising curvirostris, longiros- 

 tris, and riifus), Professor Baird hesitated to separate the two.groups gen- 

 erically,but remarked as follows concerning the matter: " The transition 

 from the one extreme in structuce in H. redivivus to the other in T. rufus 

 is so gradual as to render it very difficult to separate them ; T. curviros- 

 tris has a shorter tarsus (about equal to the middle toe) than the others, 

 and the graduation of the tail is less. It is very difficult to say whether 

 it should more properly be assigned to the first section or the second. 

 In the character of the bill there is the most gradual transition from its 

 very long greatly curved shape in H. redivivus to the straight and short 

 one of H. rufusJ^ It appears, however, that other characters of more 

 importance than the mere size and shape of the bill, serve, when taken 

 in connection with the latter, to very readily distinguish two groups 

 which it seems to me are of generic rank. These distinctions I have 

 been able to verify in the case of all the species known to date, includ- 

 ing two {M. palmeri and ill. hendirei unknown when Professor Baird's 

 "Keview" was published, besides two others M. cinereus (Xantus), and 

 ilf. ocellatus (Scl.) not taken into consideration in the "Birds of North 

 America." These characters are as follows : 



1. Harporhynchus. Tarsus much shorter than culmen ; gonys 

 equal to or longer than middle toe, without claw; tail exceeding the 

 wing by much more than the length of the tarsus. Lower parts wholly 

 immaculate. 



2. Methriopterus. Tarsus longer than the culmen ; gonys much 

 shorter than the middle toe, without claw; tail exceeding the wing by 

 much less than the length of the tarsus. Lower parts more or less dis- 

 tinctly spotted or streaked (jnarkings nearly obsolete in .1/. palmeri). 



To Harporliynclius, as thus restricted, belong only E. redivivus, H. 

 leeontei, and //. crissalis, while to Methriopterus may be referred the 



* Thus, Dr. Sclater, in bis " Synoi>sis of the Thrushes ( Turdida) of the New World," 

 (P. Z. S. ISfiO, pp. 338-40), iuchides Orjiheus curvirostris Swaius. under Harporliynchus, 

 along with H. redivivus, H. leeontei, andil. crissalis, '' MetJmoptcrus'' embracinfi: only O. 

 longirostris Lafr. and Tardus rufus Linn. In hi.s ' ' Catalogue of a Collection of American 

 Birds," published two years later (1862; pp. 7-8), Dr. Sclater adopts essentially the 

 same arrangement, Harporhynchus being represented by "jff." curvirostris, and Methri- 

 opterus by "^." louffirostris, "H." rufus, and "H." cinereus. It is iiropcr to state, 

 however, that the term Methriopterus is not used in a generic sense, but merely as a 

 convenient subgeneric heading. 



