532 MANAKIN 
ee 
Family Pipridz of modern ornithologists. The Manakins are 
peculiar to the Neotropical Region, and are said to have many of 
the habits of the Paridw (TITMOUSE), living, says Swainson, in deep 
forests, associating in small bands, and keeping continually in 
motion, but feeding almost wholly on the large soft berries of the 
different kinds of Melastoma. However, as with most other South- 
American Passerine birds, little is really known of their mode of 
life; and it is certain that the Pipridx have no affinity to the 
Paridx, but belong to the other great division of the Order PASSERES, 
to which Garrod assigned the name Mersomyop!, and in that 
division, according to the same authority, constitute, with the 
Cotingide (CHATTERER),’ the group HETEROMERI (Proc. Zool. Soe. 
1876, p. 518). The Manakins are nearly all birds of gay appear- 
ance, generally exhibiting rich tints of blue, crimson, scarlet, orange, 
or yellow in combination with chestnut, deep black, black and white, 
or olive-green; and among their most obvious characteristics are 
their short bill and feeble feet, of which the outer toe is united to 
METOPIA GALEATA, MACHZROPTERUS REGULUS, 
(After Swainson.) 
the middle toe for a good part of its length. Some few, as Metopia, 
are crested. The tail, in most species very short, has in others the 
middle feathers much elongated, and in one, Helicura, the outer 
rectrices are attenuated and produced into threads. They have been 
divided by various authors into upwards of 20 genera, but Mr. Sclater 
(Cat. B. Br. Mus. xiv. pp. 282-325) recognizes only 19, though 
admitting 70 species, of which 18 belong to the genus Pipra as now 
restricted, the P. Jewcocilla of Linneus being its type. This species 
has a wide distribution from the isthmus of Panama to Guiana and 
the valley of the Amazon ; but it is one of the most plainly coloured of 
the Family, being black with a white head. The genus Macheropterus, 
consisting of 4 species, is very remarkable for the extraordinary 
form of some of the secondary wing-feathers in the males, in which 
the shaft is thickened and the webs changed in shape, as described 
and illustrated by Mr. Sclater (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 90; Ibis, 
1862, p. 175), and shewn in the accompanying figures, in the case 
of the beautiful JZ. deliciosus, and it has been observed that the 
1 Excluding, however, the genus Rupicola (CocK-oF-THE-Rock), which has 
usually been placed among the Cotingide. 
