474 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



mesorhinium elevated and arched; maxillary tomium with or (usually) 

 without subterminal notch. Nostril variable; usually longitudinal, 

 in lower or lower anterior portion of nasal fossa and overhung by an 

 operculum; sometimes roundish or broadly oval, in anterior end of 

 nasal fossa and nonoperculate; occasionally surrounded by membrane 

 and very rarely'* very small, circular, and rimmed, in center of nasal 

 fossa. Rictal bristles usually obsolete, but frequently obvious, with 

 one or two fairly well developed; latero-frontal feathers erect-declinate 

 (never antrorse), without bristly tip. Wing rather short to very 

 short, usually much concave beneath, much rounded; tenth (outer- 

 most) primary well developed, at least half as long as ninth, always 

 broad; ninth never longer than third, often shorter than first, some- 

 times much shorter than secondaries; seventh to fourth (usually sev- 

 enth, sixth, and fifth) longest. Tail extremel}^ variable as to relative 

 length, sometimes shorter than tarsus, sometimes slightly longer than 

 wing, usually from about half to two-thirds as long as wing; always 

 more or less rounded, sometimes graduated for more than one-third 

 its length; rectrices soft and rounded at tip.^ Tarsus long (usually 

 longer than exposed culmen, never very much shorter), the acrotar- 

 sium always scutellate, the planta tarsi sometimes also more or less 

 divided into segments, and the heel joint more or less distinctly scu- 

 tellate behind; middle toe, with claw, always shorter than tarsus 

 (sometimes very nearly as long); lateral toes usually of equal or very 

 nearly equal length (when different the outer longer than the inner'), 

 rarely conspicuously unequal, both usually reaching (without claws) 

 to somewhat beyond middle (penultimate) joint of middle toe*^^ but 

 never beyond middle of subterminal phalanx of the latter; basal pha- 

 lanx of middle toe united for most (sometimes practically the whole) of 

 its length to outer toe and for at least half its length to inner toe.^ 



Coloration. — Brown or rufescent hues predominating, usually varied 

 by bars of,dusky, sometimes streaked, speckled, or squamated; under 

 parts white, gray, bufi^y, tawny, rufous, or sooty, or with two or 

 more of these colors combined, rarel}^ immaculate, usually more or 

 less barred or streaked; the plumage never with red, yellow, green, 

 nor blue, or other pure colors. Sexes alike, and young usually not 

 materiall}", if at all, different in coloration from adults. 



« \\\ the genus Leucolepis only. 



& Except, possibly, in Hylorchilus, of which I have not been able to examine a 

 specimen with perfect tail, "one lacking the rectrices altogether, while the other has 

 but few of them and these much worn, those which remain being apparently acumi- 

 nate, with the rather stiff but slender shaft slightly projecting. 



" Except in genera Telmatodytes and Cistothorus. 



^In one genus, Salpindes, the inner toe (without claw) falls short of this joint, 

 while in two others, Cafherpes and Hylorchilus, it reaches to but not beyond the joint. 



« In two genera, Telmatodytes and Cistothorus, the inner toe is united externally at 

 base to the hallux. 



