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154 ROCKY MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER. 



The bird now before us was brought from the Arkansas river, in the 

 neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains, by Major Long's exploring 

 party, and was described by Say under the name of Troglodytes obso- 

 leta, from its close resemblance to the Carolina Wren [Troglodytes 

 Ludovioianus), which Wilson considered a Certliia, and Vieillot a 

 Thryothorus. 



As the Rocky Mountain Antcatcher is the first and only species 

 hitherto discovered in North America, we shall make some general 

 observations on the peculiarities of a genus thus introduced into the 

 Fauna of the United States. 



Buffon first formed a distinct group of the Antcatchers under the 

 name of Fourmiliers, and considered them as allied to his Breves^ now 

 forming the genus Pitta of Vieillot, they having been previously placed 

 in that of Tiirdus. Lac^pede adopted that group as a genus, and 

 applied to it the name of MyrmecopJiaga. Illiger added such species 

 of the genus Lanius of Linnd and Latham, as are destitute of promi- 

 nent teeth to the bill, and gave to the genus thus constituted the name 

 of Myiothera ; rejecting Lac^p&de's designation, as already appro- 

 priated to a genus of Mammalia. 



Cuvier perceived that some of the Fourmiliers of Bufi'on were true 

 Thrushes ; but he retained the remainder as 3Tyiotherce, among which 

 he also included the Pittce. Vieillot, besides the Pittoe, removed some 

 other species, in order to place them in his new genera ConojMphaga 

 and TamnopMlus, giving the name of Myrmothera to the remaining 

 species, with the exception of the Myiothera rex, for which he formed 

 a distinct genus, with the name of Grallaria. AVe agree with Vieillot, 

 in respect to the latter bird ; but as regards the other species, we prefer 

 the arrangement of Temminck, who has adopted the genus Myiothera 

 nearly as constituted by Illiger, including some of the slender-billed 

 Tamnophili of Vieillot, of which our Myiothera ohsoleta would probably 

 be one, as above stated. 



The genus thus constituted contains numerous species, which inhabit 

 the hottest parts of the globe ; a greater number of them existing in 

 South America than elsewhere. For the sake of convenience, several 

 sections may be formed in this genus, founded on the characters of the 

 bill, tail, and tarsus ; but as we have only one species, it does not rest 

 with us to make divisions, and we shall merely remark, that our ohsoleta 

 is referable to the last section, consisting of those whose bills .are the 

 most slender, elongated, and arcuated, in company with the Tardus 

 lineatus of Gmelin. 



The Antcatchers may justly be enumerated amongst the benefactors 

 of mankind, as they dwell in regions where the ants are so numerous, 

 large, and voracious, that without their agency, co-operating with that 

 of the Myrmecophaga jubata, and a few other ant-eating quadrupeds, 



