TYRANNIM5. 



Subdivision I. OLIGOMYOD^. 



{ 



A. Plantar vinculum lost ; manubrium 



forked (Eleutherodactyli, Forbes *). 



a. Tarsus exaspidean. 

 Toes nearly free (as in the Oscines). 



Bill incurved, booked .... 1. Tyrannidae, p. 2. 

 Bill straight, pointed .... 2. 0xyrhamphidse,p.280. 

 b'. Toes more or less united 3. Pipridae, p. 282. 



b. Tarsus pyenaspidean. 

 Bill elongated, compressed, not 



serrated 4. Cotingidae, p. 326. 



Bill short, conical, serrated . . 5. Phytotomidae, p. 406. 



c. Tarsus taxaspidean 6. Philepittidae, p. 409. 



d. Tarsus ocrcate. 



Rectrices 12 7. Pittidae, p. 411. 



Bectrices 10 8. XenicidaB, p. 450. 



B. Plantar vinculum retained; manubrium 



not forked (Desmodactyli, Forbes *) 9. Eurylaemidae, p. 454. 



Family I. TYRANNIDiE. 



The Tyrannidae or Tyrant-birds are a large and much varied 

 group, numbering over 400 species, absolutely restricted to the New 

 World, or Nearctic and Neotropical Begions, over every part of 

 which (except the extreme arctic portion) they are distributed in 

 greater or less abundance. They probably perform the same 

 function in the economy of Nature as the Muscicapklce or true Fly- 

 catchers in the Old World, although they belong to a different series 

 of the Passerine Order, being at once distinguishable from the 

 Muscicapidie by their normal first primary (which in the Musd- 

 capidce is abnormally shortened) and exaspidian tarsi. 



More than 400 species of Tyrannidce are already known, and 

 many more no doubt remain to be discovered, as the more remote 

 portions of 8outh America come to be investigated. They are for the 

 most part birds of small size — the largest known species of Tyrant- 

 birds, such as Ar/riornis pollens and Pitangus sulphuratus, being 

 scarcely so large as Tardus viscivorus, and the greater number 

 of them much smaUer. The Tyrant-birds are mostly clad in dull 

 colours of olive-brown and black, relieved only by shades of yellow 

 and green ; though there are occasional exceptions to the rule, such 

 as the brilliant scarlet of the male Pyrocepliali, and the fiery crests 

 of the Muscivorce. Their generally uniform plumage and similar 

 external structure renders the discrimination of the species of 

 Tyrannida and their grouping into genera extremely difficult, and 

 in many cases unsatisfactory. It must not be for an instant supposed 

 that the arrangement here employed, which is practically the same 

 as that used by Mr. Salviu and myself in the ' Nomenclator Avium 



* Of. Forbes, P. Z. S. 1880, p, 391. 



