THE IBIS. 



THIRD SERIES. 



No. XV.— JULY 1874. 



XXIII. — On the Neotropical Species of the Family Pteropto- 

 chidffi. By P. L. Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. 



(Plate VIII.) 



In 1831 the zoological traveller Kittlitz established the genus 

 Pteroptochus upon three new species of birds which he had 

 observed in Chili in 1827, during his sojourn there with the 

 expedition of the 'Seniavin.' He distinguished them princi- 

 pally by their remarkably short and rounded wings — never 

 used in flight according to his observations, and their large 

 feet and strong curved claws. He considered them allied to 

 the Wrens {Troglodytes) , and referred what is actually another 

 member of the same group of birds {Ti'iptorhinus paradoxus) , 

 which he discovered at the same time, to the genus Tro- 

 glodytes. 



About the same period this singular group of birds attracted 

 the attention of the distinguished French explorer AlcideD'Or- 

 bigny. Besides two of the Chilian species already obtained 

 by Kittlitz, D^'Orbigny discovered a still more remarkable form 

 in Northern Patagonia, which, on his return home, he de- 

 scribed in conjunction with M. Isidore Geoffroy as Rhinomya 

 lanceolata. M. D^Orbigny more correctly referred the group 



SER. III. VOL. IV. p 



