78 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus MIMOCICHLA Sclater. 



Mimocichla Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. LoncL, 1859, 336. (Type, Turdus rubripes 



Temminck.) 

 Mimokitta Bryant, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H., ix, 1865, 371. (Type, Tardus plum- 



beus Linnteus.) 

 Mimocitta (emendation) Newton, Ibis, 1866, 121, in text. 



Medium-sized Tiirdid^ with rather long and pointed wing-, rather 

 long and strongly rounded or graduated wliite-tipped tail, naked 

 eyelids, and (in life) red or deep orange legs and feet, the prevailing 

 color of plumage uniform bluish gray or slate color. 



Bill shorter than head, moderately stout, slightly broader than 

 high at frontal antise; exposed culmen about equal in -length to middle 

 toe without claw (sometimes a little longer or shorter) , highest above 

 nostril, whence gently sloping downward basally and gradually 

 decurved terminally; gonys slightly convex or nearly straight, 

 ascending terminally, slightly to decidedly longer than mandil)ular 

 rami; maxillary tomium nearh^ straight, distinctly notched sub- 

 terminally. Nostril oval, overhung by rather narrow membrane, 

 posteriorly in contact, or very nearly so, with frontal feathering. 

 Rictal and decumbent post-nasal bristles well developed; loral 

 feathers with fine bristle-like points. Eyelids naked (bright orange 

 or red in life). Wing rather long and pointed, the longest primaries 

 exceeding longest secondaries by length of middle toe (without claw) 

 or more; outermost (tenth) primary longer than primary coverts, 

 about one-third as long as ninth, narrow, rather (sometimes decidedly) 

 pointed; ninth equal to or (in M. ardosiacea) longer than thu'd; 

 eighth equal to or longer than fifth, sometimes equal to sixth and 

 nearly as long as seventh; eighth and seventh or seventh and sixtli 

 longest; four primaries (eighth to sixth) with outer web sinuated. 

 Tail slightly shorter than wing (decidedly shorter in M, ravicla), 

 decidedly longer than distance from bend to end of secondaries, 

 strongly rounded or graduated, the graduation at least equal to 

 length of gonys, usually equal to length of exposed culmen, or nearly 

 so. Tarsus rather long (less than twice exposed culmen, decidedly 

 less than one- third wing), the acrotarsium usually fused on both sides, 

 sometimes with more or less distinct indications of segmental divisions 

 ("scutella") ; middle toe (without claw) less than two-thirds as long 

 as tarsus; lateral toes unequal, the inner (without claw) reaching to 

 sub terminal articulation of middle toe, the outer slightly beyond; 

 hallux equal to or slightly shorter than inner toe; claws normal in size 

 and curvature, that of hallux decidedly longer than its digit. 



Coloration. — General color plain slate color or bluish slate-gray ; 

 wings and tail black (except in M. ravida) , the former with broad 

 bluish gra}^ edgings, the latter with broad white tips to lateral rectrices; 

 cliin white, and tliroat black or streaked black and white, or else 



