FAMILY FORMICARIIDAE 149 



felt that an error had been made. ... I now find that the bird really 

 belongs to the common African species, Dryoscopus cuhla (Lath.). 

 ... In some exchanges I made with McLeannan, I sent him a num- 

 ber of African skins ; doubtless this one was included by mistake in 

 a collection forwarded to Mr. Lawrence from Panama, and thus 

 misled the latter gentleman as to the origin of the specimen. 



"Thamnophilus leucopygus must therefore be removed from the 

 list of American birds." 



The Puffback Shrike, Dryoscopus citbla (Shaw), Family Laniidae, 

 is found from eastern Republic of Congo and Kenya south to eastern 

 and southeastern South Africa.] 



XENORNIS SETIFRONS Chapman: Spiny-faced Ant-shrike, 

 Hormiguero Frentispinoso 



Frontispiece 



Xenornis setifrons Chapman, Amer. Mus. Nov., no. 123, July 2, 1924, p. 1. 

 (Tacarcuna = Old village site, Rio Tacarcuna, 580 meters elevation, Darien, 

 Panama). 



Small ; crown and back brown, lined irregularly with black ; lower 

 surface in male bluish slate, in female light brown, indistinctly 

 streaked. 



Description. — Length 150-160 mm. Feathers of the forepart of 

 the body rather broad, rounded, with the web loosely formed at the 

 distal end ; well-developed but short black bristles in the loral area, 

 below the eye, around the gape, and on the chin ; tail feathers with 

 web loose and often worn at tips, 12 in number, but usually with 

 one or more lost through accident. Adult male, forehead, purplish 

 gray ; crown, hindneck, back, and scapulars between olive-brown 

 and buffy brown, with each feather bordered on sides and tip with 

 black, producing a pattern that in part falls in dark lines ; rump and 

 upper tail coverts neutral gray, washed lightly with olive-brown ; 

 wings dusky brown, with coverts spotted, the scapulars and inner 

 secondaries tipped, and the primaries edged narrowly with wood 

 brown ; tail blackish slate ; side of head and entire under surface, 

 including under wing coverts, neutral gray to dark neutral gray. 



Adult female, like the male on the upper surface ; chin dull white ; 

 throat washed lightly with dull pinkish buff and with whitish shaft 

 lines producing indefinite streaks ; lower foreneck, breast, sides, and 

 under wing coverts wood brown, with dull slate bases showing ir- 

 regularly to produce a slight mottled pattern ; flanks and under tail 

 coverts dull olive-brown. 



