CHAPTER XV. WAX WINGS 



EAM. AMPELID^ 



As I observed in 1872, this appears to be an arbitrary and 

 unnatural association of a few genera that agree in some par- 

 ticulars, but are widely different in others. Hardly any writers 

 are agreed upon the composition of the group, or the disposi- 

 tion to be made of it in the series. It has been made to cover 

 the Myiadestince, Ptilogo nydince, Dulince, and Ampelince; but 

 the first-named I have already removed to the Turdidce, the 

 third may be a Yireoniue, and the other two do not seem to be 

 specially related. Under these circumstances, I do not attempt 

 to define the group. 



The two genera which I shall treat here are Ampelis and 

 Phcenopepla, each representing one of the more isolated forms 

 of American Passeres. Ampelis stands quite alone, doubtless 

 typical of a subfamily at least. Phcenopepla is closely related 

 to the exotic Ptilogonys, though not particularly near our 

 Myiadesles, which it will be remembered used to be called 

 Ptilogonys. 



Genus AMPELIS Linnaeus 



Ampelis, Linn. SN. 1735-1766. Type Lanius garrulus. 



Bomb) cilia, Briss. 1760. Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. i. 1807, 88. Type B. cedrorum. 



Bombyciphora, Meyen, " , 1810, " (fide Gray). 



Bombycivora, Temm. " , 1815, " (fide Gray). 



Lanius p., Linn. 



torvus p., lUiger, 1811. 



CHARS. Bill short, broad, flat, rather obtuse, plainly notched 

 near tip of each mandible, with wide and deeply cleft gap, the 

 convex culmen and gonys less than half as long as the nearly 

 straight commissure, the width of rictus more than two-thirds 

 the length of the gape. Nasal fossaB broad, but filled with 

 short, erect, or antrorse and close-set velvety feathers ; nostrils 

 narrowly elliptical, overarched by a (feathered) scale. Kictal 

 vibrissaB few and short. Wings long and pointed, much longer 

 than the tail, their point formed by the 3d primary, closely sup- 

 ported by the 2d and 4th, the 5th abruptly shorter and the rest 

 rapidly graduated. Primaries 10, but the 1st spurious, so very 

 short as readily to escape observation, and sometimes displaced 

 to the outer side of the 2d primary a condition like that seen 



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