158 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



XFurnariinx Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 22 (includes Rhodino- 



cichlal). —ScLATER, Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 146. 

 — Furnariidx Stejneger, Stand. Nat. Hiat., iv, 1885, 479, in text. 

 <^Synallaxin!f. Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 26. — Sclater, Cat. 



Am. Birds, 1862, 149.— Sundevall, Met. Nat. Av. Disp. Tent., ii, 1872, 55 



(English translation, 1889, 122). 



The FurnariidaB are closely related to the Dendrocolaptida? and 

 have usually been included in the same family, as Subfamilies Fur- 

 nariinge, Synallaxinse, Philydorinas, and Sclerurinse,'' three Furnariine 

 genera being even referred to the '\Subfamily Dendrocolaptinae.'' 

 Prof. Garrod and Dr. Stejneger, however, have shown'' that in their 

 schizorhinal, instead of holorhinal, skull and dissimilar feet they 

 differ sufficiently to warrant their recognition as a distinct family. 



Although distributed throughout the continental portions of the 

 Neotropical Region, the Furnariidae are most developed in the Pata- 

 gonian and South-Brazilian Subregions, to which many of the genera, 

 among them the most typical ones, are peculiar, comparatively few 

 of them passing to the northward of the Isthmus of Panama, only 

 25 of the more than 278 species and 10 of the 37 genera ^ belonging 

 to the Central American district. 



Wliile some of the genera resemble Dendrocolaptine forms in 

 external appearance, and presumably in habits also, the majority of 

 the Furnariidae are more terrestrial; some of them eminently so, and 

 strongly recalling in their appearance and general habits the Larks 

 (Alaudidas) and Stone-chats. Many of them inhabit reedy marshes, 

 and bear a superficial likeness to the marsh-wrens (genera Telmato- 

 dytes and Cistothorus), while certain small long-tailed short-billed 

 forms, as Leptasthenura, recall the Parine genus Psaltriparus, others 

 again resembling Creepers (Certhiidae). 



Many of the species, particularly those belonging to the so-called 

 Subfamily Furnariin^e, are remarkable for the unusual character of 

 their nests, which, in some cases, consist of massive oven-like struc- 

 tures built of mud or clay, in others immense lieaps of twigs, whence 

 the builders have received the name of "fagot-gatherers" from the 

 human inhabitants of the country. 



Wliat has been said concerning the unsatisfactory classification of 

 the Formicariidae <' and my efforts to devise a better one applies as 

 well to the present group. 



a See Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, vol. xv., pp. xi-xiii, 2-126. 

 (By Philip Lutley Sclater.) 



& Genera Margarornis, Premnoplex, and Pygarrhicus. 



c See Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1877, pp. 449-452, and Stejneger, Standard 

 Natural History, vol. iv, Birds, 1885, pp. 478, 481. 



d As enumerated in Sharpe's Hand-list of the Genera and Species of Birds, vol. iii, 

 1901, pp. 45-74, under Dendrocolaptidse. 



e See p. 9. 



