438 PROF. NEWTON ON THE GENUS HYPHERPES. [Mar. 15, 



The peculiarity, therefore, of its sternum, when taken with its 

 tarsal scutellatiou and peculiar syrinx, seems to demand that, as has 

 already been proposed by Garrod, the genus Conopophaga^ should 

 form a primary division of the Tracheophone Passeres, which may 

 be defined as follows :^ 



ConopophagidcB. — -Tracheophoniue Passeres, with a holorhinal 

 skull and four-notched sternum, an exaspidean tarsus, and a syrinx 

 with no intrinsic muscles, and with the sterno-tracheales not attached 

 to \\\Q processus vocales. 



As regards the possession of a four-notched sternum by these 

 birds and the Pteroptochidse, I am not inclined to consider it in any 

 way a primitive character, but rather as an instance of a simple 

 modification having been independently acquired in different groups 

 of birds (many parallel cases might be given). The Tracheophoniue 

 syrinx must, without doubt, be regarded as a modification of some 

 Haploophonine form - ; and in all these last birds, as in the still 

 less specialized Eurylsemidje, the sternum has the typical form with 

 but two notches. On the other hand, the similarity of form of the 

 sternum in the Pteroptochidte and Conopophagidse may very pro- 

 bably indicate that these groups may both have sprung from some 

 common stock which had already developed a peculiar sternum. 



4. Note on the Generic Name Hypherpes. 

 By Alfred Newton^ M.A., F.R.S., &c. 



[Keceived March 15, 1881.] 



My attention having been called by a note in the ' Zoological 

 Record ' (xvi. Aves, p. 28) to the prior use in entomology, by the 

 Baron Chaudoir (Bull. Mosc. 1838, p. 8), of the generic name 

 Hypherpes, conferred by me some years ago (P. Z. S. 1863, p. 85) 

 on a bird discovered in Madagascar by my brother, I beg leave to 

 substitute for the latter the name Hypositta^, and hope that this 

 curious form will henceforth be known as Hypositta corallirostris. 



1 Corythopis has not yet been anatomically examined ; by Sundevall it is 

 placed near Formicarius. It is therefore nearly certain to be Tracheophonine, 

 and is probably really closely allied to Conopophaga. 



= Garrod, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 517. 



^ Th. i/TTo, sub; aiTTTj, Sitta. 



