816 BULLETIN 50;, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



distinct tlioiigh slender antrorse bristly points. Wing moderate, 

 rounded, the ninth, eighth, and seventh primaries longest, the tenth 

 not longer (sometimes shorter) than fifth; wing-tip about equal to 

 tarsus. Tail nearly as long as wing (longer than distance from bend 

 to end of secondaries), even or slightly emarginate, the rectrices 

 rounded at tip, the lateral ones gradually widening terminally. Tar- 

 sus slender, shorter than commissure, its scutellation holaspidean, the 

 single row of large quadrate scutella forming the planta tarsi, having 

 its anterior margin on outer side joining the posterior margin of the 

 acrotarsium a little behind the median line; middle toe, without claw, 

 about two-thirds as long as tarsus; inner toe, without claw, reaching 

 about to middle of subterminal phalanx of middle toe, the outer 

 decidedly longer, its claw reaching to middle of that of middle toe; 

 hallux shorter than inner toe, its claw nearly as long as the digit; all 

 the claws strongly curved, acute; basal phalanx of middle toe wholly 

 adherent to outer toe, about half so to inner toe: basal tylari of hal- 

 lux and inner toe broad and flattened. 



Coloration. — Pileum, wings, and tail blackish, the wings with con- 

 spicuous whitish, grayish, or buffy edgings, the tail sometunes tipped 

 with white; back and scapulars grayish (with or without darker 

 streaks), passing into paler grayish or whitish on rump; under parts 

 plain pale grayish, becoming whitish on abdomen. Sexes alike in 

 color. 



Nidification. — (Unknown ?) 



i?(7??//f.- Panama to Ecuador and southeastern Brazil. (Three 

 species.) 



This genus, hitherto placed in the family Tyrannidse, certainly 

 comes very near to Lipaugus and Casiornis, both of which are by 

 general consent considered as members of the Cotingidse. The 

 structure of the feet, including the scutellation of the tarsal envelope 

 and the amount of cohesion between the anterior toes, is precisely the 

 same as in the two genera mentioned, except that Lipaugus differs (as 

 it also does not only from all Tyrannidse but from all other Cotingidie 

 as well) in having the scutella of the upper portion of tlie planta tarsi 

 developed into prominent tubercles or serrations. Tlie coloration of 

 Sirystes suggests that of Erator and PacJiyrJiamphus quite as much as 

 it does that of any member of the Tyrannidse; but the bill is typically 

 tyrannine, resembling closely that of Tyrannus and the stouter billed 

 Myiarclii, which probably accounts for the erroneous allocation of the 

 genus to the last-named family. 



