7, = a 
PICARL®, PICARIAN BIRDS. —GEN. 111. V7 
lll. Genus PYROCEPHALUS Gould. 
Vermilion Flycatcher. pure dark brown; wings and tail blackish with 
slight pale edgings ; the full globular crest, and all the 
under parts, searlet ; bill and feet black. ¢ dull brown, 
including the little crested crown; below, white, tinged 
with red or reddish in some places, the breast with 
slight dusky streaks. Immature ¢ shows gradation - 
between the characters of both sexes; the red is some- 
times rather orange. 54-6; wing 34; tail 24. Valleys 
. Fic. 114. Vermilion Fly- 
of the Rio Grande and Colorado, and southward. Cass., catcher. of 
Til. 127, pl. 17; Bp., 201; Coor., 333. . . RUBINEUS var. MEXICANUS. 
Order PICARIA. Picarian Birds. 
This is a miscellaneous assortment (in scientific language, “‘a polymorphic 
group,”) of birds of highly diversified forms, grouped together more because they 
differ from other birds in one way or another, than on account of their resemblance 
to each other. As commonly received, this order includes all the non-passerine 
Insessores down to those with a cered bill (parrots and birds of prey). Excluding 
the parrots, which constitute a strongly marked natural group, of equal value with 
those called orders in this work, the Picariew correspond to the Strisores and 
Scansores of authors, including, however, some that are often referred to Clama- 
tores. This ‘‘order” Scansores, or Zygodactyli, containing all the birds that have 
the toes arranged in pairs, two in front and two behind (and some that have not), 
is one of the most unmitigated inflictions that ornithology has suffered; it is as 
thoroughly unnatural as the divisions of my artificial key to our genera. 
As at present constituted, the Picarie are insusceptible of satisfactory definition ; 
but we may indicate some leading features, mostly of a negative character, that 
they possess in common. The sternum rarely if ever conforms to the particular 
Passerine model, its posterior bordtr usually being either entire or else doubly 
notched. The vocal apparatus is not highly developed, haying not more than three 
pairs of separate intrinsic muscles ; the birds, consequently, are never highly musical. 
There are some modifications of the cranial bones not observed in Pusseres. <Ac- 
cording to Sundevall, they, like lower birds, lack a certain specialization of the 
flexor muscles of the toes seen in Pusseres. The feet are very variously modified ; 
one or another of all the toes, except the middle one, is susceptible of being turned, 
in this or that case, in an opposite from the customary direction; the fourth one 
being frequently capable of turning either way ; while in two genera the first, and~ 
in two others the second, toe is deficient; and, moreover, the tarsal envelope is 
neyer entire behind as in the higher Passeres. Another curious peculiarity of the 
feet is, that the claw of the hind toe is smaller, or at most not larger, than that 
of the third toe. The wings, endlessly varied in shape, agree in possessing ten ° 
developed primaries, of which the first is rarely spurious or very short. A notable 
exception to this occurs in the Pici. A very general and useful wing-character is, 
that the greater coverts are at least half as long as the secondary quills they cover, 
and they sometimes reach nearly to the ends of these quills. This is the common 
case among lower birds, but it distinguishes most of the Picarie from Passeres; it 
. KEY TO N. A. BIRDS. 23 
