CAPITONID^. 13 



Family CAPITONID^. 



(By a. E. SHELLEY.) 



Palate sometimes aegithognathous, sometimes dcsmoguathous. 



Vomer single, bitid. Maiiubrial process of the sternum pointed. 



Eemoro-caudal and accessory semitendinosus muscles present ; 

 ambieus and accessory femoro-caudal absent. 



Tail-feathers ten. 



Ptcrylosis : ventral feather-tract forked on the throat and on 

 each side of the breast. 



Oil-gland tufted. 



Cicca none. 



Ranging over the whole of the ^Ethiopian Region, the Indian 

 and Indo-Chinese Regions, and the Indo-Malayan Subregion. The 

 Neotropical Region in the New World. 



Although the limits of this familj' ajjpear to be well defined, the 

 characters used for the separation of genera are by no means easy to 

 distinguish, and in any case they are difficult to formulate. The 

 Capitonklai appear to me to constitute a family of Picarian birds 

 in which no single character for the separation of genera can bo 

 considered to be absolute, and even style of coloration is of no avail 

 as a generic character. As a rule the plumage is gaudy and the 

 contrasts striking ; but there are some genera, such as Calorluunphus 

 and Gi/mnobucco, which it would be difficult to match for dullness of 

 coloration. Scarcely one of the genera ;idmitted here is so well 

 defined that it does not form a link towards some other genus, and 

 J-'oi/uiiorhi/nchus and its allies may well be considered as subgenera 

 belonging to one leading type, of which the toothed bill is the most 

 prominent feature. The same may be said of Barhatula and 

 Smilorhis, and Me(jalaima and Cyano])s. 



Key to the Genera. 



A. Tip of lower mandible fitting into the tip of 

 upper mandible. 

 a. Edge of upper mandible distinctly 

 toothed *. 

 a. Chin-augle hidden by a double tuft of 

 dense bristly plumes ; upper mandible 

 sidcated. 

 a" . Lower mandible deeply sulcated, [p. 15. 



the base hidden by dense bristles . . 1. PoGONOehynchus, 

 h" . Base of lower mandible perfectly 



smooth, the bristles not so dense as [p. 16. 



to conceal the base 2. Erythbobucco, 



* TrU-huliema affinis and T. melaiioccphala are exceptions in a way, the tootli 

 being scarcely clistingaishable and nearly obsolete. 



