PLANT-CUTTERS. 



475 



a half long. From this grow the feathers lo the very ])oint, llnis producing the beau- 

 tiful cylindrical plume quite detached from the Itreast, and forming an ornament as 

 unique and elegant as the crest itself." 



The other bird figured is the male of the naked-throated bell-bird {Vasmarhincos 

 nudicollis), white, with the naked parts green, inliabiting the dense forests of Brazil. 

 TVith its congeners it is especially celebrated for its e.vtraordinary voice, which is 

 compared with the tolling of a bell, or the sound produced by the blows of a hammer 

 on an anvil. Two of the species have most remarkable caruncles on the base of the 

 bill, the 'Campanero' (0. niveus) from Cayenne, having one fleshy, erectile, and 

 cylindrical appendage nearly three inches long, black of color, and ornamented with 

 small, white, star-like feathers, while C. tricanoicufaius, from Costa Rica, has three 

 enormous band-like caruncles on the forehead where it joins the bill, and one on each 

 side at tiie corner of the mouth. 



The cotingas are very much like enlarged pipras, and have also some resemblance 

 to our cedar-birds {.lti>j>elit>), hence they were formerly classed with the latter. Their 

 Structure, outside of the peculiar ornaments already referred to, is rather uniform. 

 Their diet is a mi.\ed one, consisting chiefly of fruits and insects. 



We have finally to mention the last family of the present super-family, the ])lant- 

 cutters, PiiYTOTOMiD^, with a single genus (I'hijtotoma) consisting of a few species 

 ranging from Bolivia to the Argentine Republic and Chili. In their external appear- 

 ance they closely resemble some conirostral oscines, with which they have been often 

 associated in the systcmot. The coloration is brownish, streaked 

 with black, but their internal structure is very interesting since 

 they represent the finches among the mesomyodian Passeres ; 

 hence we are obliged to go a little into detail. 



The skull of the plant-cutter is described by Parker as on 

 the whole "a most remarkable and evidently ancient form, 

 although unique in many of its characters." According to his 

 nomenclature, its palatal structure (Fig. 233) is comi)ound a>gi- 

 thognathous of the feebler ty])c occurring in some mesomyodian 

 forms, for inst.ance Pitta, Pipra, T/ui»uiop/iiliis, and which is 

 characterized as a kind of passerine desniognathism jiroduced 

 by the maxillaries coalescing with the ossified alinasal wall, but 

 not with the nasal septum as is the case with the oscinine jialates 

 of the compound type. In many other points the j)alate of 

 Phi/lototna, especially in its anterior part, shows considerable 

 resemblance to some of the oscinine conirostrcs; in the former 

 there is a row of clearly defined denticles, both along the den- 

 laryand palatine ridges of the premaxillary. Professor Parker 

 imagines that these knobs are "remains of what are apj)arently but recently lost teeth 

 — that is, sjie.aking paheontologically," — an interpretation which to us seems doubtful, 

 to say the least. Altogether the ]«ilate, in spite of its adaptation to a bill isomor- 

 phous with that of the tanagcrs and finches, shows near relationshiji to that of the 

 other members of the present super-family, besides that mentioned above, for instance, 

 in the s])ur-like process fri>m the maxillo-palatines postero-externally ; but entirely 

 unique, in the present order, are the plover-like nasal-gland grooves at the orbital eave. 

 We fully agree witli Professor Parker that tlie plant-cutter " is marked off from its near- 

 est known congeners — a species representing a genus, and even a family, quite unique." 



Fig. 233. — J'alalo of Phy- 



lofnma: ft, lienticles; mxp, 

 maxillo-i>alatine8 ; pi, 

 palaiini'S ; pi, pterygoids; 

 r. Toaier. 



