138 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus RHOPOTERPE Cabanis. 



(?) i/yrmorms Hermann, Tab. all Anim., 1783, 188, 235. (Type, Fourmillier 



Buffon.) a 

 Formicivorus Temminck, Cat. Syst. Cab. Orn., 1807, 92. (Type, by tautonomy, 



Formicivorus palihour Temminck= Turdus formicivorus Gmelin =i^orwn'cam<s 



torquatiis Boddaert.) 

 (?) Urotomus Swainson, Zool. Journ., i, no. 3, Oct., 1824, 302, in text (nomen 



nudum); iii, no. 10, Sept., 1827, 1G6 (diagnosis, but no species named). 

 Rhopoterpeb Cabanis, in Wiegmann's Archiv fiir Naturg., xiii, pt. i, 1847, 227, 



337. (Type, Turdus forviicivorus Gme\m= Formicurius torquahis Boddaert.) 



Medium-sized Formicariidse (length about 130-150 mm.) with 

 planta tarsi broadly rounded (not ridged) beliind; tarsus only one- 

 fourth as long as wing; tail only two-fifths as long as wing, nearly 

 even; bill as long as or longer than head (commissure longer than 

 tarsus), with mesorliinium broad and flattened basally; coloration 

 variegated, with a white or fulvous band across subbasal portion of 

 remiges, and outer web of primaries crossed by an oblique sub- 

 terminal band of buff or fulvous. 



Bill as long as or longer than head, rather slender, rather broad 

 and depressed basally, its width at loral antise greater than its depth 

 at same point and equal to less than half the distance from nostril to 

 tip of maxilla; culmen distinctly ridged (except extreme base, where 

 broad and flattened), straight for most of its length, abruptly 

 decurved terminally, the tip of maxilla moderately uncinate; tomia 

 straight, slightly but distinctly notched subterminally ; gonys slightly 

 convex, rather prominent basally. Nostril exposed, separated rather 

 widely from loral feathering, narrow, longitudinal (slit-like) overhung 

 by a rather broad convex operculum. Rictal bristles obsolete, and 

 feathers of chin, malar apex, loral antise, etc., short, without terminal 

 setae. Wing large, very concave beneath, rather pointed, the longest 

 primaries projecting considerably beyond secondaries; sixth and 

 seventh, or sixth, seventh, and eighth primaries longest, the tenth 

 (outermost) three-fourths as long as the longest, the ninth longer 

 than secondaries. Tail very short (only two-fifths as long as wing), 

 nearly even, the rectrices rather narrow, soft, with subacuminate tip. 

 Tarsus shorter than commissure, only one-fourth as long as wing, 

 rather stout, distinctly scutellate, the planta rather broadly rounded 



"The "Fourmillier" of Buffon comprises thirteen species, belonging to eleven 

 recognized genera and four families (Formicariidae, Conopophagida^, Pittidae, and 

 Troglodytidfe). So far as I can determine no one has ever fixed a type, and to do so 

 by any other method than the "process of elimination" would involve an amount of 

 time and labor which is not at my disposal. Under the circumstances, I prefer to 

 retain the generic name Rhopoterpe, notwithstanding the unquestioned priority and 

 pertinence of Formicivorus, leaving the final solution of the question to some one who 

 has both the time and taste for such investigation. 



6 "f>u>(^ Gestrauch; zkpnw, erquicken." (Cabanis.) 



