5/6 MR. SCLATER ON THE GENUS ORNITHION. [ June 1 7, 



The canines are small and spurious. The nasals are open in rear, 

 admitting the frontals between in wedge form ; and the pointed 

 sutures are zigzag and mazy, showing that they have the weight and 

 strain of horns to bear. The horn-pedicles are very slender, more 

 so even than in Cervulus ; and the frontal is only thickened behind 

 the orbit. Incisors : the two central large and flat, the next on each 

 side as broad as the two lateral taken together. Molars, in young 

 state, four on each side above and below, the hindmost one just be- 

 ginning to show. 



Mr. Kopsch has tried hard to get the borns of this species ; but the 

 season has passed and he has not succeeded ; and no other specimen 

 has come to market. I should judge, from the appearance of the spe- 

 cimen in hand, that the horns will be very slender, and probably of 

 some strange form, which, taken with the cranial peculiarities of the 

 beast, will entitle it to subgeneric separation. However, we must 

 get the horns before we can venture on that. It may turn out to be 

 a Rusine Roebuck. 



6. Note on the Genus Ornithion of Hartlaub. By P. L. 

 Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., &c. 

 In 1853 Dr. Hartlaub established the genus Ornithion, belonging 

 to the Tyrannidae, and described a single species (O.inerme) from a 

 specimen in the Bremen collection. Although I have long well 

 known this little bird from the typical example, kindly sent to me 

 for examination by the describer, it is only recently, in spite of the 

 enormous number of American bird-skins that have passed through 

 my hands, that I have succeeded in obtaining a skin of it for 

 my own collection. The acquisition of this second specimen has 

 caused me to examine the form more closely ; and I have come to 

 the conclusion that Ornithion cannot be well kept apart from the 

 bird named by Cabanis Myiopatis pusilla, which is again identical 

 with Camptostoma flaviventre, Scl. et Salv. I have also resolved that 

 the two other species of Mijiopatis of Cab. and Heine may be 

 naturally located in the same genus, which is remarkable amongst 

 the Tyrannidae for its small short compressed bill, without any trace 

 of rictal bristles. If this course be adopted the synonymy of the 

 genus will stand as follows : — 



Genus Ornithion. 



1853. Ornithion, Hartl. J. f. 0.1853, Typo. 



p. 35 O. inertne, Hartl. 



1857. Camptostoma, Scl. P. Z. S. 

 1857, p. 203 C. imberbe, Scl. 



1859. Myiopaiis,Cab. etKein. Mus. 

 Hein. ii. p. 58 Muscipeta incanescens, Max. 



Diagnoses specierum. 



a. ventre flavo : tectricibus alarum albo (aut flavido) clistincte terminatis. 



f loris distincte albis : cauda breviore 1 . inerme. 



\ loris obscuris : cauda longiore 2. pusillum. 



