112 



BIRD GALLERY. 



base. They inhabit the dense forests or thick undergrowth of Central 

 and South America, and resemble Tits in their habits ; but their food 

 consists of fruits, berries, and seeds rather than insects, and their 

 shallow nests are suspended from the branches of low shrubs. Two 

 subfamilies are recognised the Piprina, including the smaller species 

 in which the sexes are usually dissimilar, the males being brilliantly 

 coloured and the females dull, and the Ptilochlorince, birds of large size, 

 mostly with dull plumage. Among the Piprinee we may call attention 

 to Chloropipo flavicapilla (1693), with its elongate wings and tail, to 

 Cirrhopipra filicauda (1698), with the shafts of the tail-feathers ending 

 in long stiff filaments, to the members of the genera Metopia (1695) 

 and Masius (1696-7), with their erect frontal plumes, and to the 

 numerous species of brilliantly coloured Pipra (1700-5). Macharo- 

 pterus deliciosus (1707) is remarkable for the extraordinary structure of 

 the secondary flight-feathers in the male, and Chiroxiphia linearis (1 707 a) 

 for the thickened shafts of the primary quills and the greatly length- 

 ened middle tail-feathers. The allied C. caudata (1708) is known in 

 Brazil as the " Dansador " or " Fandango-bird," on account of its 

 peculiar habit of dancing. When several individuals are assembled 

 together, one often sits and pipes, while the remainder dance up and 

 down to the music. When the musician becomes exhausted, he joins 

 the dancers, and another takes his place. Of the Ptilochlorina examples 

 will be found in Ptilochloris squamatus (1716) and the sombre-coloured 

 Heteropelma turdinum (1714). 



Family III. OXYRHAMPHIDA:. SHARP-BILLS. 



[Case 70.] The three representatives of this family belong to the genus Oxy- 

 rhamphus (1719), found in Central and South America. They are 

 easily distinguished from the Tyrannidcn by the straight sharp-pointed 

 bill and by the strongly serrated outer web of the first primary quill in 

 the male. 



Family IV. TYRANNIC. TYRANT-BIRDS. 



[Case 70. This large and much varied group, numbering over 400 species, is 

 entirely restricted to the New World, and is distributed over every part, 

 except the extreme north, in greater or less abundance. Some of the 

 species are migratory, breeding in North America and wandering south 

 in winter to Central and South America. They appear to take the 

 place of the Flycatchers (Muscicapidee) of the Old World, and, as in 

 these birds, the majority have the bill greatly flattened and beset with 

 bristles. From the other Oligomyodian families of the Mesomyodiaii 

 Passeres they are distinguished by the scaling of the tarsi and by having 

 the toes nearly free, as in the typical Passerine groups. 



