Phibalura flavirostris and Lochmias nematura. 485 



Wied, nor Burmeister, nor any other scientific traveller in 

 Brazil has had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with 

 any details about it ; and of all those persons occupying them- 

 selves with similar investigations that I have consulted on 

 this question^ not one was able to furnish me with the slightest 

 information. 



Phibalura is a very singular bird, having a somewhat 

 hirundinine or cypseline habitus, produced especially by the 

 long and forked tail and the short and flattened bill. It is 

 an excellent flier, of quiet and peaceable temperament, and 

 rarely emits any sounds, these when uttered being audible 

 only in the immediate vicinity. It resorts to the dense and 

 shady foliage of trees of moderate height, and, in one word, 

 is a bird easily overlooked by persons not well trained in 

 ornithological investigations. It has, even in its native 

 country, no popular name, and the term " tesoura " (scissors), 

 which I have heard sometimes applied to it by Brazilian 

 hunters, is a quite vague and general one, used for all kinds 

 of birds with forked tails, such as Nauclerus furcatiis, Hy dro- 

 ps alls for cip at a, Tyr annus violentus, and Gubernetes yiperu. 



Mr. P. L. Sclater, our best authority on Neotropical 

 birds, places Phibalura'^ among the Cotingidse, in the sub- 

 family Cotinginse, and writes as follows : — " This is a very 

 peculiar type, with an excessively short and widened bill, and 

 a long deeply cleft tail, and perhaps ought to stand in a 

 separate subfamily. It is restricted to S.E. Brazil." Bur- 

 meister f also places it among the Cotingidae, and says 

 of it : — " Der Vogel bewohnt das Waldgebiet des mittleren 

 Brasiliens von Bahia bis Rio de Janeiro. Ich erhielt ihn bei 

 Neu- Freiburg durch Hrn. Bescke. Er ist aber nirgends 

 haufig, lebt ziemlich versteckt im Urwalde, und zeichnet 

 sich weder durch cine laute Stimme, noch durch andere 

 eigenthiimliche Manieren aus.'^ 



I cannot agree with two of these statements. Firstly, 



* ' Catalogue of the Birds iu the Collection of the British Museum,' 

 vol. xiv. p. 372 (1888). 



t * Systematische Uebersicht der Thiere Brasiliens,' ii. p. 433. (Berlin, 

 1856.) 



