A REVISION OF THE GENUS FORMICARIUS BODDAERT. 



]!V 



Robert Ridgwav, 



Curator of the Dcparlincnt of Birds. 



The present attempt to elucidate the species and local forms of the 

 Genus Fonnicarias was brou.uht about by a peculiar combination of 

 circumstances. The U. S. Xational Museum has for a Ioiiil;- time pos- 

 sessed specimens of tvro forms from Central America, one represented 

 by specimens from Costa Rica and Nicaragim," the other by examples 

 from Panama; and, altliougii unquestionably distinct forms, all were 

 labelled '■'■ Formicarius hoffmanni.^^ Further, while F. hoffnudini was 

 described from a Costa Rica specimen, the description made it clear 

 that the Panama birds in the National Museum and not those fiom 

 Costa Rica n'i)resented that species, a fact to be explained only on the 

 supposition that this Panama form extended into some part of^Costa 

 Rica from Avhicli the National ]\iusenm had no specimens, i)erhaj)S, on 

 the Pacific side, a hypotliesis which specimens recently received from 

 the Costa Rica National Museum have proven to be correct. To add 

 to my perplexity, the leading authorities on Neotropical ornithology 

 ascribed another si)ecies (7^. (oialis) to Costa Rica which could not be 

 recognized among the many specimens examined. In short, I i'ound it 

 quite impossible to properly label the material examined Avith the as- 

 sistance of Volume XV of the "Catalogue of Birds in the British 

 Museum," or that ])ortion of the Biologla CentraU- Americana, Acen, 

 including this genus. 



After bringing together a series of nearly sixty specimens, however, 

 from various collections, the matter is made (juite clear regarding a 

 number of doubtful points, though the material is still far from ade- 

 quate for a satisfactory treatment of the subject, immense areas of South 

 America and considerable porti(ms of Central America being absolutely 

 unrepresented. 



As one result of this accumulation of material, it has been ascertained 

 that three very distinct forms of the atialis section of the genus occur 

 in Costa Rica, the commonest of which, or at least the one having the 

 most extensive range there, appears to have been universallj' confounded 

 with F. hoffmanni, m hile that referred to F. analis, is really not that 

 spe«'ies at all, but a very distinct one, ranging from Costa Rica to west- 

 ern Ecuador, which Mr. Cherrie has named, in manusiMipt, F. nigri- 

 capillus. It is also found that between F. hojfinanni and 7-^ crissalisj 

 or in the district extending from the island of Trinidad through Vene- 

 zuela to the interior of Colombia, is interposed a lorm of somewhat in- 



Proceediiitis Xatioiial Museum, Vol. XVI— \o. mil. g67 



