CHARACTEES OF A NEW AMERICAN FAMILY OF 

 PASSERINE BIRDS. 



By Robert Ridgwat, 



Curator of the Department of Birds. 



In ''The Auk",' Mr. F. A. Lucas, curator of the department of com- 

 parative anatomy iu the National Museum, has called attention to the 

 notable characters x^resented in the skull of the genus Procnias, llliger, 

 at the same time remarking' that my x^roposed establishment of a new 

 family for its reception "is certainly warranted by the cranial charac- 

 ters of the genus." Although I had already drawn up a diagnosis of 

 the external characters of the family, circumstances have until now pre- 

 vented its i)ublication. The diagnosis is herewith presented, the osteo- 

 logical and pterylographical characters being given in a separate paper 

 by Mr. Lucas.- 



Famiiy PROCNIATID^. 



SWALLOW-TANAGEKS. 

 Procniaiina' [Tanagrida''} Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, p. 54, 1863. (Subfamily.) 



External characters. — Bill triangular, depressed, extremely broad at 

 base but compressed at tip, the lateral outline changing from convex 

 basally to concave terminally: gape very long, extending to beneath 

 anterior angle of eye; gonys less than half as long as commissure and 

 much less than breadth of bill at base; culmen sharply ridged, strongly 

 recurved terminally ; tip of maxilla slightly notched ; nostrils exposed, 

 veiy small, circular, surrounded by a slightly raised rim. Tarsi short 

 (about as long as commissure, shorter than middle toe with claw), scutel- 

 late anteriorly, caligate posteriorly, the hinder margin contracted into 

 a sharp edge ; lateral claws not reaching base of middle claw ; hind claw 

 'much stouter than middle claw. Wings long* (more than five times as 



•April, 1895, p. 186. 



^Mr. Lucas' paper (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVIII, 1895, p. 451) follows immediately 

 after the present one. 



ProceediiiKs of the United States National Museum, Vol. XVIII — Xo. 1076. 



449 

 Proc. N. M. 95 29 



