3G8 TIITELIID^. 



Subfamily IV. MYIADECTIN.E. 



The present position of the birds contained in this subfamily is not 

 very satisfactory to my mind. After havino; been phiced among the 

 Ampelldce by many authors, they have been recently located by 

 Messrs. iSclater and Salvin in the Sijlv lid a, hnt Mr. Seebohm has not 

 admitted them iuto his volume of the ' Catalogue.' I have there- 

 fore placed them near the Mocking-Thrushes, which they resemble 

 in their power of song ; but their liroadened bill and powerful rictal 

 bristles are like those of the Flycatchers, and, as Mr. Salvin has 

 pointed out, they appear to be not distantly related to the membera 

 of the African geuus Cassinia (cf. Cat. B. vol. iv. p. 466). 



5S. MYIADECTES. 



Type. 

 Myiadestes, Swains. Naf. Lihr. x. p. 134: (c. 1838) .... M. genibarbis. 

 Myiadectes, Salv. Si- Godm. Bid. Centr.-Amer., Aves, i. p. 39 (1879). 



Ranije. Middle and Pacific Provinces of the United States, ranging 

 throughout the whole of Central America into the Andes of Vene- 

 zuela, Colombia, and Peru. 



Key to the Species.* 



a. Throat chestnut. 



«'. Ear-coverts uniform slaty grey, or with only 

 slight indications of paler shaft-lines ; a white 



chin-spot solilarius, p. 370. 



h'. Ear-coverts very distinctly streaked \vith white. 

 a" . Ear-coverts slaty grey, like the upper surface ; 

 a large white chin-spot, and another at base 

 of lower mandible; throat and under tail- 

 coverts deep chestnut genibarbis, p. 371. 



h". Ear-coverts black, like the upper surface; no 

 white chin-spot ; feathers at base of lower 

 mandible reddish white ; throat and under 

 tail-coverts orange-chestnut sibilaiis, p. 372. 



b. Throat ashy grey or white. 



c'. Bill black or horn-brown, the imder mandible 

 sometimes yellowish, 

 c". Throat white; undertail-covertswhite; general 

 colour above ashy olive ; under snrface of body 

 white, with the breast and flanks light ashy, elizabethce, p. 373. 

 d". Throat light ashy, like the rest of the under 

 surface ; under tail-coverts hght ashy, broadly 

 margined with white. 

 a'". Back olive-brown; head grey, in contrast ; 

 wing-coverts and quills dusky brown, edged 

 with reddish brown ; no perceptible wing- 

 spot at base of secondaries obscurus, p. 374. 



b"'. Back ashy, like the head ; wing-coverts and 

 quills blackish edged with ashy, and ha\-ing 



* Mr. Cory, in his description of his ^1/. montanus, does not mention the colour 

 of the ear-coverts, and I have not been able to place that species in the " Key.'' 



