232 



patience to read all this long story about the accomplishments of a 

 Little Bird ; though at the same time I feel, that in acquainting you, 

 as Vice-President of the Zoological Society, with the facts stated, I 

 am not only giving you the means of placing upon record the same, 

 but affording you the opportunity of witnessing the truth thereof, 

 as being, in the event of any accident happening to the bird, a more 

 satisfactory evidence than the mere assertion of, 



Dear Sir, 



Yours most faithfully, 

 Dr. John Gray. S. Leigh Sotheby. 



April 27, 1858. 



Dr. Gray, V.P., in the Chair. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Synopsis of the American Ant-Birds (Formicariid^e). 

 By Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A., F.L.S., etc. Part II. 

 containing the Formicivorin^e or Ant-Wrens. 



(Aves, PI. CXLI., CXLII.) 



Subfam. II. Formicivorinte. 



Habitus gracilior, statura minor : rostrum tenuius, magis subu- 

 latum, mx uncinatum : tarsis gracilibus ; acrotarsiis interdum, 

 paratarsiis plerumque integris. 



I have met with very great difficulty in separating this group into 

 genera presenting good distinguishing characters. Dr. Cabanis has 

 depended mainly upon the division of the tarsal scutes ; but I have 

 found instances of great variation*n this respect in apparently very 

 closely allied species, although, I confess, this character ought to be 

 attended to, and has been much too generally overlooked. Then 

 again as to the number of rectrices, it is not only in the long-tailed 

 EllipurcB (as termed by Cabanis) that they are reduced to ten, but also 

 in some of the short-tailed species (as in Myrmotherula hauxwelli 

 and M. pygmcea) ; and I have been compelled to abandon that sign 

 as a ground for generic difference. On the other hand, Dr. Cabanis 

 seems to me to have attached too little weight to comparative length 

 of the tail, as in placing Formicivora grisea and Myrmotherula 

 pygmcea in the same genus ; and I have thought it more natural to 

 arrange the long-tailed and short-tailed Formicicorce in different 

 sections. 



