90 BULLETIN 50^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus PLANESTICUS Bonaparte. 



Merula (not of Koch, 1816)a Leach, Syst. Cat. Mam. and Birds Brit. Mus., 1816, 



20. (Type, Turdus merula Linnseus). 

 (?)IIodoiporus Reichenbach, Av. Syst. Nat., 1850, pi. 53. (Type, Turdus jamai- 



censis Gmelin ? ) 

 Planesticus Bonaparte, Compt. Rend., xxxviii, 1854, 3; Notes Orn. Coll. Delattre, 



1854, 27. (Type, Turdus jamaicensis Gmelin.) 

 Semim^rula Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1859, 332. (Type, Turdus gigas 



Fraser.) 



Medium-sized to large Turdidse with four primaries (eighth to fifth, 

 inclusive) sinuated on outer webs, gonys equal to or longer than 

 mandibular rami, the width of space between latter at base decidedly 

 less than length of gonys; wing much more than three times (some- 

 times nearly five times) as long as tarsus, and base of remiges (on 

 under side) without any definite light-colored area. (No definite or 

 exclusive color-characters. ) 



Bill decidedly (usually much) shorter than head, compressed, its 

 width at frontal anticT not more (usually less) than its height at same 

 point; exposed cidmen decidedly shorter than middle toe (without 

 claw), straight or nearly so basally (sometimes for basal third or 

 more), then gradually and increasingly decurved terminally, the tip 

 of mandible obviously though somewhat slightly uncinate; gonys 

 longer than mandibular rami, straight or faintly convex, ascending 

 terminally, its base sometimes forming an obvious prominence or 

 angle; maxillary tomium faintly concave near middle, as faintly 

 convex subbasally, distinctly notched subterminally. Nostril longi- 

 tucfinally oval, ovate, or elliptical, posteriorly in contact with latero- 

 frontal feathering, margined above by membrane, the latter usually 

 much narrower than the nostril. Rictal and decumbent post-nasal 

 bristles well developed; loral feathers with minute bristle-like points. 

 Wing variable as to relative length and proportionate development of 

 primaries, but usually rather long and pointed, the longest primaries 

 exceeding longest secondaries by at least the length of exposed cul- 

 men, sometimes by more than length of tarsus; outermost (tenth) 

 primary variable as to relative size and form, sometimes shorter than 

 primary coverts, sometimes very much longer, but never more than 

 half as long as ninth,'* usually rather narrow and more or less pointed, 



"■ Type, Turdus roseus Linnaeus. 



b In P. gigas (type of Semimerula Sclater) and the allied P. gigantodes the tenth 

 primary is half as long as the ninth and very broad. In most species of true Planesticus 

 it is less than one-fourth as long and relatively narrow; but in P.fuscatra, P. cacozela, 

 P. fulviventris, and P. jamaicensis it is more than one-third as long, the difference in 

 the development of this quill-feather between the two species last mentioned and the 

 two first named being decidedly less than between the former and that species having 

 the smallest spurious primary (P. vngratorius) , in which it is only about one-fifth as 

 long as the ninth. In short, scarcely two species agree in the relative size and exact 



