8 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Family FORMICARIID^. 



THE ANTBIRDS. 



Myiotheridse. Bote, Isis, 1826, 973.— Huxley, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867, 471, in 



text. 

 '^Eriodoridx Cabanis, Wiegmann's Archiv fiir Naturg., 1847, pt. i, 209, 336 



(includea Pteroptochidfe, Pittidse, and Menuridse!). 

 yFormicariidx Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1858, 202; Cat. Am. Birds, 1862 



170 (includes Conopophagidse).— Carus, Handb. Zool., 1868, 268. 

 <^Eriodorid3e Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 11 (excludes Formicarii, 



dee, part). 

 XUypocnemididae Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 1 (includes Pittidse 



and Conopophagidse ; excludes Formicariidse, part). 

 —Formicariidx Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1877, 452.— Stejneger, Stand. 



Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 477. — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, ii, 



1892, 193. 

 =Formicariinse Gadow, Bronn's Thier-Reichs, Vog., ii, 1891, 276. 



Tracheophone Mesom3^odian Passeres with the metasternum 2- 

 notched, tensor patagii brevis tendon normally passerine, interorbital 

 septum perforate, postorbital process large (sometimes joining the pro- 

 cessus squamosi), maxillopalatines strap-shaped (crossing posterior 

 end of the olfactory fossa and passing backward beyond the level of 

 the median descending plate of the palatine); vomer long and broad; 

 nares holorhinal, the anterior nares inclosed by a bony wall, leaving 

 a wide aperture at proximal end of nasal fossa between the pre- 

 maxillary and the descending process of the nasal; syrinx tracheal, 

 one pair of tracheo-bronchial muscles arising from the trachea and 

 attached to one or more of the bronchial semirings, or else one pair 

 inserted on distal end of the trachea; mesorhinium normal; nostrils 

 not conspicuously (often not at all) operculate; tarsal envelope 

 taxaspidean or holaspidean, or fused (nonscutellate) ; basal phalanx 

 of middle toe more or less united to lateral toes, usually for at least 

 half its length to outer toe, for less than half to inner toe, in some 

 genera also united for part of second phalanx to outer toe; outer toe 

 decidedly shorter than middle toe and slightly longer than inner toe; 

 hahux as long as inner toe or slightly to decidedly shorter, slightly 

 stouter to much stouter; claws moderate in size and curvature to 

 short and slightly curved, that of the hallux always shorter than the 

 digit; maxilla with tip more or less conspicuously uncinate, with 

 distinct subterminal tomial notch, the mandibular tomium also 

 notched subterminally (this notch sometimes minute or indistinct, 

 however). Wing moderate in size to rather large, more or less con- 

 spicuously concave beneath, always much rounded, but usually with 

 longer primaries extending decidedly beyond secondaries; tenth 

 (outermost) primary never more than three-fourths as long as the 

 longest, usually about three-fifths to two-thirds as long. Tail vari- 

 able as to relative length, rarely longer than wing, usually shorter 



