Genera Xcncrpcstes and Metopothrix. 107 



liad an opportunity of examining the type of Synallaxis singu- 

 larls, belonging to the Branicki Museum at Warsaw, and I 

 am now in a position to affirm positively that it is no Synal- 

 laxis at all, but belongs to Xenerpestes — a genus proposed by 

 me in 'The Ibis' (1886, p. 54) for a strange-looking bird 

 from Bucaramanga, Colombia, viz. X. minlosi Berl. — of 

 which genus it forms a second species. 



In fact, S. singularis agrees with X minlosi in all essential 

 generic characters. The form of the bill is nearly the same, 

 being but a little shorter and broader and less curved in its 

 apical portion. There is hardly any difference in the form 

 of the wings and the tail. The legs and the toes, with their 

 claws, are quite of the same structure. 



Regarding coloration, there is at least a great analogy in 

 the general distribution of colours to be observed when the 

 two species are compared closely together. 



The frontal feathers in S. singularis are short and stiff, as 

 in X minlosi, but while in X. minlosi they are blackish, like 

 the rest of the pileum, with narrow whitish shaft-stripes, 

 they are of a bright uniform rufous in S. singularis. The 

 posterior part of the crown and all the remaining upper 

 parts are of a uniform olivaceous grey in the latter species, 

 while in the former the back is of a darker and purer ashy 

 grey, without any olivaceous suffusion. 



The tail-feathers are nearly the same colour in the two 

 species. 



The broad white wing-bands of A', minlosi, formed by the 

 white tips of the longest and middle wing-coverts, are wanting 

 in S. singularis ; nevertheless they are indicated by slight 

 whitish margins or apical points to be observed on several of 

 the larger and middle wing-coverts. Unfortunately this 

 feature is not indicated in the coloured figure of S. singularis. 



The blackish spots on the under parts of the body in 

 S. singularis are also indicated in the young of the other 

 species (see description in 'Ibis,' 1886, p. 51). The white 

 superciliary stripe and the white ground-colour of the under 

 parts are slightly tinged with yellowish, but not so much as 

 would appear from the coloured figure. In A', minlosi these 



