328 BULLETIN .■)(), UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Supei'family ]ME;SO]\IVOI3I.a 

 KtESOMYODIAN PASSERES. 



<^Clamatorcs Wagner (Andreas), Wiegmann's Archiv. fiir Naturg., 1841, ii, 93 

 (includes all " Picaria; " of Nitzsch not zygodactyle nor amphibolic). — Carus, 

 Handb. ZooL, 1868 (the Picarian forms excluded but Pseudoscines included). 



= C/fl?na/o;TsGAnow,Bronn'sThier-Reich.Vogel.ii. 1893. 273, 301 ;Classif.Vertebr., 

 1898, 38. 



—Passeres clamatores Gadow, Bronn's Thier-Reich, Vogel, ii, 1893, 276. 



= Mesomyodi Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lend., 1876, 507, 517. — Forbes, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. Lond., 1880, 391. 



=Passcirs mesomyodi Coues, Key N. Am. Birds, 2d ed., 1884, 427. 



<CPasser('s anisomyodx Gadow, Bronn's Thier-Reich, Vogel, ii, 1893, 273 (includes 

 Pseudoscines). 



<^Passeres anisomyodi Gadow . Bronn's Thier-Reich, Vogel, ii, 1893, 301. 



Passerine birds with the syrinx niesomyodous'' or anisomyodous,<= 

 tracheal or broncho-tracheal, the syringeal muscles (if present) con- 

 sisting of not more than two pairs; feet eleutherodactyle (schizopel- 

 mous)^; palate usually aegithognathous (schizognathous ^ only in 

 Fiu'iiariidtT, inclining toward the desmognathous ^ type in Phytotom- 

 idse); posterior tarsal envelope {planta tarsi) not acutiplantar.^ 



In tliis large group of at least 1,700 species and 250 genera the varia- 

 tions in external structural details are so great that a more elaborate 



« See the present work. Part I, p. 16. 



b The syringeal muscles attached to the middle of the bronchial semirings. (See 

 Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1876, 507; Newton, Diet. Birds, 576.) 



c The syringeal muscles "unequally inserted, either in the middle or upon one (the 

 dorsal or ventral) end of the bronchial semirings. ' ' (See Gadow, Bronn 's Thier-Reich, 

 Vogel, ii, Syst. Theil. 1893.) 



d In the eleutherodactyle or schizopelmous (as distinguished from the desmodactyle, 

 syndactyle, or desmopelmous) foot the flexor perforans digitorum and flexor hallucis 

 lo7igi(s tendons are separated from one another. (See Part I, 14, of the present work.) 



e For definitions of these terms see Huxley, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867. 415-472. 



/ See Part I, p. 18, of the present work. The several modifications of the tarsal 

 envelope in the present group may be described as follows: 



I. Exaspidean. — The anterior envelope (acrotarsium) extends entirely across the 

 outer side of the tarsus and around the posterior side, sometimes meeting the starting 

 point on posterior portion of inner side, the two edges usually separated by a narrow 

 strip or groove of smooth or nonscutellate membrane. 



IL Endaspidean. — The above arrangement (exaspidean) reversed, the acrotarsium 

 extending to and around the tarsus from the inner side, the narrow plantar space being 

 thus external instead of internal. 



III. Pyenaspidean. — The broad plantar space on posterior side of tarsus broken up 

 into numerous small irregular or roundish scutella or granules. 



IV. Holaspidean. — The broad plantar space occupied by a single series of broad, 

 more or less quadrate or rectangular scutella. 



V. Taxaspidean. — The broad plantar space occupied by two or, rarely, three series 

 of smaller, quadrate, rectangular, or hexagonal scutella. 



These several types of tarsal scutellation are, in the main, well defined; but some- 

 times the arrangement is more or less intermediate; some Tyrannidae. for example, 



