Notes on the Family Dendrocolaptidro. 273 



number 18. Collected 3rd June, 1907, and presented by 

 L. II. G. Ramsay, Esq. Five Hpccimeiisi, 



It so liappeiis that all the five 8i)eciraen3 of this highlan<l 

 gcrbil are older than any of the four of true hlackleri from 

 comparatively low down at Smyrna; but if the colour is 

 afffcted by this fact, and even |)os.iibly tho relative j)o.sition 

 of the palatine foramina and teeth, the conslant presence in 

 hlackJeri and absence in hjawn of a white tip to the tail 

 seem to justify a special subdpecific name for the hi^Miland 

 form. 



XXVII. — Notes on the Famili/ D^ndrocolaptida;, with Saqges- 

 tions for its I)ivi4)n. Wy CuAULKS Chubb, F.Z.8., 

 I\I.B.O.U., Zoological DL'partmeiit, British Museum 

 (Natural History). 



When the late Dr. P, L. Sclater wrote the fifteenth volume 

 of the ' Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum' he 

 included in the family L)eiidrocolaj)tida3 the ground-birds, 

 bush-birds, and tree-climbir.g birds, dividing them into the 

 following subfamilies: — Furnariiiifo, Synallaxinina?, Pliily- 

 dorinro, Sclerurino?, and Dendrocolaptina?. This was followed 

 by the late Dr. Bowdler Sharpe in the * Hand-list of Birds/ 

 vol. iii. 1901, with two additional subfamilies, viz., Margar- 

 ornithinai and Glyphorhinae, which had been established 

 by Salvin and Godman (Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, ii. 

 ])p. 109, 171). Professor liidgway, in his 'Birds of North 

 and Middle America,' vol. v. pp. 157-295 (1911), has 

 divided these into two families under the following titles : — 

 Furnariidaj and Dendrocolapti(la\ Brabourne and Chubb, 

 in their 'List of the Birds of 8outh America,' did not reco<>- 

 iiizeanyof the divisions mentioned above, but simply included 

 them all under the family Dendrocolaptidaj. 



It appears to me, howev«i', that these may be divided into 

 four families, the first to include those tl at are essentially 

 ground-birds — Furnariida} — with the followinir irenera : — 



GeohateSf Swains., 1838. 



Geositta, Swains., 1837. 



Furnariiis, Vieill., 181 G. 



Ufiucerthid, Geotfr. Saiiit-IIilairc, 1832. 



Cinclodes, Gray, 184U. 



