ON THE GENUS CONOPOPHAGA. 217 



38. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ANATOMY OF PASSERINE P.z.s. 1881, 

 BIRDS. PART IV.* ON SOME POINTS IN THE 

 ANATOMY OF THE GENUS CONOPOPHAGA, AND 

 ITS SYSTEMATIC POSITION.f 



As regards the true relationships of the genus ConopopTiaga con- 

 siderable doubt has hitherto prevailed amongst systematic zoologists. By 

 Sundevall J it was placed amongst the TyrannidaB, on account of its 

 depressed beak and the nature of its tarsal scutellation. Messrs. Sclater 

 and Salvin, in their valuable ' Nomenclator Avium Neotropicalium ' , 

 followed Sundevall the Conopophaginas, consisting of the genera Cono- 

 pophaga and Coryifiopis, therein forming the subfamily of the Oligo- 

 myodian Tyrannidse. All these authors, however, had overlooked the 

 fact that Johannes Miiller, in his classical memoir on the Voice-organs 

 of the Passerines ||, had described the syrinx of Conopophaga aurita, and 

 had found it to be completely tracheophone, that of the TyrannidaB 

 having, of course, no such structure. Grarrod was, no doubt, aware of 

 Miiller's results ; for in his proposed rearrangement of the Tracheophone 

 Passeres II, he made the " Conopophagidas " a distinct family, which he 

 placed between the Dendrocolaptidae and the FormicariidsB. No reasons, 

 however, for the change were there given. 



A few days ago Mr. Salvin called my attention to the fact that in a 

 skeleton of Conopophaga melanops, lately acquired for the Cambridge 

 University Museum, the sternum presented four notches along its pos- P.Z.S. 1881, 

 terior margin, a very unusual condition in Passerine birds. This again 



Sternum of Conopophaga lineata, of the natural size ; viewed, slightly obliquely, 



from the side. 



drew my attention to the genus ; and being fortunately the possessor of 

 a specimen in spirit of Conopopliaga lineata from Peruambuco, 1 have 



* For Part III. see P. Z. S. 1880, p. 387. 



t Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, pp. 435-438. Read March 15, 1881. 



\ Teutamen, p. 60: Stockholm, 1872. I. c. p. 41 : London, 1873. 



|| Ueber d. Stimmorgane &c., p. 39: Berlin, 1847. Garrod'e edition, p. 32. 



f P.Z.S. 1877, p. 452. 



