BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 105 



bright cinnamon-rufous, more grayish (sometimes wholly gray) on 

 pileuni and hindneck, the wing-coverts sometimes spotted wdth black ; 

 sides of head, throat, and chest black, rest of under parts white 

 medially, grayish and fulvescent laterally; adult females similar but 

 without black on under parts. 



Range. — Nicaragua to w^estern Ecuador, Amazon Valley, and 

 British Guiana. (About six species. )'^ 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OP MYRMECIZA. 



a. Under parts partly black. 

 h. Back, wings, etc., l>rown or cinnanion-rufoiis. 

 c. Abdomen white; back, wings, etc., cinnamon-rufous or rufous-chestnut. 

 ( Mynncciza boucardi.) 

 d. Whole chest gray. 



e. Pileum and hindneck wholly gray; no black spots or bars on wing-coverts. 

 (Central Colombia.) 



Myrmeciza boucardi boucardi, adult male (extralimital).^ 

 ee. Pileum and hindneck mostly rufous-brown; wing-coverts with con- 

 spicuous bars or transverse spots of l^lack. (Central Venezuela.) 



Myrmeciza boucardi griseipectus, adult male (extralimital).c 

 dd. Upper chest black, like throat, the lower chest white medially. 

 ee. Sides of chest paler and less extensively gray. (Coast district of Vene- 

 zuela; Trinidad.) 



Myrmeciza boucardi swainsoni, adult male (extralimital).*' 

 ee. Sides of chest darker and more extensively gray. (Eastern Panama and 

 Caribbean coast district of Colombia.) 



Myrmeciza boucardi panamensis, adult male (p. 107). 



I have not seen Thamnophilus leuconotiis Spix, referred to Myrmelastcs by recent 

 authors. 



1 am quite unable to appreciate any reasons for retaining a genus Mynnelasles as 

 distinguished from Myrmeciza, unless the former is restricted to the type (if. plum- 

 beus). The latter differs from other species in much greater development of the 

 plumage of the lower back and rump, stouter bill, more rounded wing, and narrower, 

 more broadly operculate nostrils. On the other hand, M. boucardi and its allies 

 have a longer and more slender bill, longer tail, with relatively narrower rectrices, 

 longer outermost primary, and very different style of coloration. While not so 

 homogeneous as most genera, however, the group, after the elimination of the long- 

 tailed and otherwise very different species constituting the genus Drymophila Swain- 

 son (see page 15), may, on the whole, be considered a fairly natural group. 



& Myrmeciza boucardi Berlepsch, Ibis, 5th ser., vi, no. xxi, Jan., 1888, 129 (Bogota, 

 Colombia; coll. Count von Berlepsch); Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xv, 1890, 279, 

 part (Bogota). — [Drymophila] boucardi Sharpe, Hand-list, iii, 1901, 34. 



c Myrmeciza sxvainsoni griseipectus Berlepsch and Hartert, Novit. Zool., ix, no. 1, 

 April 10, 1902, 76 (Caicara, Orinoco R., Venezuela; coll. TringMus.). 



d Myrmeciza sivainsoni Berlepsch, Ibis, 5th ser., vi, no. xxi, Jan., 1888, 130, in text 

 (based on Myrmothcra longipcs Swainson, but not of Vieillot). — M[yrmeciza] boucardi 

 swainsoni Ridgway, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., xxi, Oct. 20, 1908, 194, in text. — Myrme- 

 ciza longipes albiventris Chapman, Auk, x, no. 4, Oct., 1893, 343; Bull. Am. Mus. 

 N. H., vi, Feb., 1894, 51 (Princestown, Trinidad; coll. Am. Mus. N. 11.).— [Drymo- 

 phila] albiventris Sharpe, Hand-list, iii, 1901, 34 (Triniddd). — Myrmeciza longipes 

 longipes (not Myrmothera longipes Swainson?) Hellmayr, Novit. Zool., xiii, 1906, 33 

 (Trinidad; crit.). 



