180 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus PREMNOPLEX Cherrie. 



Premnoplexa Cherrie, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xiv, no. 855, Sept. 4, 1891, 339. 

 (Type, Margarornis hrunnesccns Lawrence.) 



Small scansorial Fiirnariidpe (length about 135 mm.) with second 

 phalanx of outer toe partly joined to middle toe, tarsus shorter than 

 middle toe with claw, wing less than three and a half times as long 

 as tarsus, exposed culmen as long as middle toe without claw, and 

 inner webs of remiges without any buff or ochraceous area. 



Bill nearly as long as head, slender, its width at loral antife greater 

 than its depth at same point and equal to decidedly less than half 

 the distance from nostril to tip of maxilla; culmen distinctly ridged, 

 slightly and gradually curved from near base, the tip of maxilla v^ery 

 slightly decurved, not uncinate; tomia nearly straight for terminal 

 half or more but strongly deflected basally, without trace of sub- 

 termmal notch; gonys nearly straight, slightly prominent basally, 

 slightly ascending terminally. Nostril exposed, posteriorly in con- 

 tact with loral feathering, very narrow (a horizontal slit), over- 

 hung by a broad, convex, membraneous operculum. Rictal bristles 

 absent, and feathers of chin, etc., without terminal setse. Wing 

 rather short, excessively rounded, the longest primaries exceeding 

 secondaries by much less than length of exposed culmen; sixth, 

 seventh, and eighth primaries longest, the tenth (outermost) about 

 three-fifths as long as the longest, the ninth much longer than sec- 

 ondaries. Tail about as long as wmg, graduated for more than half 

 its length, the rectrices (12) abruptly acuminate, with slender but 

 barbed points conspicuously protruded (but less developed on lateral 

 than on middle rectrices). Tarsus longer than whole culmen, one- 

 third as long as wing, distinctly scutellate; middle toe, with claw, 

 longer than tarsus; outer toe, without claw, reaching to' about 

 middle of subterminal phalanx of middle toe, the inner toe distinctly 

 shorter; hallux as long as outer toe, much stouter; basal phalanx 

 of middle toe wholly united to outer toe, for more than half to inner 

 toe; claws rather large and strongly curved, very acute, that of the 

 hallux much shorter than the digit. 



Coloration.— Abo^Q brown, the head darker and duller; throat 

 buff or ochraceous; rest of under parts brown wdth broad guttate 

 streaks of buff or ochraceous-buff; no buff or ochraceous on inner 

 webs of remiges. 



Range. — Costa Rica to Peru and Bolivia. (Two species ? ^) 



a From npifivov, trunk of tree, and nXr^aan, strike (erroneously nr^-qaau) in original). 

 6 I have not seen P. stictonola (Berlepsch), from western Bolivia. 



