MYIADESTES., 419 
Myiadestes is a genus embracing a number of species quite similar 
in character as well as in coloration, and belonging to the mountain- 
ous regions of America, including the West Indies. The genus 
was founded on the Muscicapa armillatus, of Martinique, which 
is probably very similar to IZ solitarius, of Jamaica, taken here as 
the type. This, however, is in some respects different from other 
species, especially in the decided falcation of the first primary, and 
the attenuation of the tips of the outer two or three quills. 
The species vary a little in the width of bill, the angularity of 
culmen, the length of rictal bristles, the length of outer primary, 
emargination of tail, ete. One of the most aberrant forms in this 
respect is JZ elisabeth, in which the bill is narrower, deeper, and 
much more Thrush-like in appearance. 
The species are all of dull colors, in which ash gray or plumbeous 
plays a principal part. All exhibit a peculiar pattern of coloration 
of the wing. The bases of all the quills, except more or fewer of 
the outer, are white or yellowish, best defined on the secondaries, 
where the patch is confined to the basal portion, extending more 
along the inner edges of the primaries, the aggregate showing on 
the inner edge of the wing as a well-defined patch, just as in the 
Thrushes. Externally this patch is usually visible just below the 
greater coverts of primary and secondary quills, although generally 
altered in color, and is then succeeded by a dusky bar, and then 
again by another bar like the first, which however is confined to the 
outer webs of the quills. These two bars, sometimes pale yellowish, 
sometimes plumbeous, separated by a dark one can be traced more 
or less distinctly in all the species. In all likewise the tail is 
whitish or grayish on its outer edge and on the tips of the more 
lateral feathers. The bill and legs are sometimes dusky, sometimes 
yellowish. 
Common CHARAcTERS.—General color ashy blue or gray (except in Myiadestes 
elisabeth, which is olivaceous above and whitish beneath) ; the wing with 
conspicuous light patch across quills at base inside, less evident externally, 
where there is a second light bar separated from the first by a dusky one. 
(M. leucotis is rufous above, black beneath, with white patch at base of 
quills.) 
1 As these sheets are passing through the press, the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion has received a specimen of M. leucotis of Tschudi, from Peru, presented 
by the Museum of Neuchatel, which proves to be quite aberrant in shorter, 
more rounded wings, longer bill, stouter legs, and different pattern of colora- 
tion of the wing. It may reasonably constitute the type of a different genus 
or subgenus, but I do not at present propose to name it as such. The general 
characters will be found in the diagnostic table, and a full description 
farther on. 
