Plant Cutters 



629 



or ornamented with small, white, star-like feathers. In Central America occurs 

 another species (C. tricarunculatus] even more remarkable as regards the car- 

 uncles than the last, since it possesses three of these long and naked processes, 



FIG. 184. Naked-throated Bell-bird, Chasmorhynchus nudicollis. 



one arising from the middle of the forehead and the others from the corners 

 of the mouth. In the Naked-throated Bell-bird (C. nudicollis}, as the name 

 implies, the sides of the head and throat are naked or covered with small scat- 

 tered bristles; the caruncle is absent. This latter species is confined to south- 

 eastern Brazil. 



THE PLANT CUTTERS 



(Family Phytotomidce) 



Having the tarsal covering pycnaspidean as in the typical Cotingas, but 

 differing markedly in possessing a short, conical, finely serrated bill, are the 

 so-called Plant Cutters, which number but four species, referred to a single genus 

 (Phytotoma). They are stockily built birds, about seven inches in length, bear- 

 ing such a strong external resemblance to the Finches that they were formerly 

 placed with them, but the anatomical characters preclude this relationship and 

 show them to be nearest the last-considered family. They have rather short, 

 pointed wings in which there are ten primaries and nine secondaries, and rela- 

 tively long, even tails of ten feathers. 



