94 BIRDS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 



The species on which this genus was founded are small and 

 slender birds with short wings and long tails. The bill is slender 

 and pointed, and the exposed cnlmen only slightly more than half 

 the length of the tarsus. The wing is small and rounded, the 

 fourth and fifth primaries longest, the third slightly longer than 

 the sixth, and the second about equal to the seventh. The tail is 

 long, and soft in texture, and exceeds the length of the wing by 

 about the length of the tarsus. The tarsus, which is somewhat 

 long, is smooth and slender. 



Key to the Species. 



A. Crown of head rufous. 



a. Abdomen and sides of body similar in 



colour ; tail rufous. 

 a . Ear-coverts pale brown with whitish 



shaft-streaks S. poliophrj/s, p. 94. 



h' . Ear-coverts uniform blackish &'. i/iciccon/ielli, -p. 95. 



b. Abdomen white in contrast to the flanks; [p. 96. 



tail brown S.albigularisjosephince, 



B. Crown of head broAvn. 



c. Abdomen dark ochreous buff S. guianoisis, p. 97. 



d. Abdomen white 8. cinnamomea,]). Q^. 



e. Abdomen streaked with buffy-white >S'. aditsta, p. 100. 



409. Synallaxis polioplirys. 

 Grey-browed Spine-tail. 



Synallaxis polioplirys Cab. J. f. O. 1866, p. 307 (" Cavana") ; Sclater, 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xv. p. 39, 1890 (lioraima) ; Brabourne & Chubb, 

 B. S. Amer. i. p. 228, no. 2303, 1912. 



Synallaxis demissa Salvin & Godman, Ibis, 1884, j). 449 (Eoraima, 

 5000 to 6000 ft.) ; Salvin, Ibis, 1885, p. 420. 



Adult male. Crown of head, nape, upper wing-coverts, upper 

 tail-coverts, and tail both above and below rufous, inner webs of 

 flight-quills dark hair-brown with ciunamon-butf' on the inner 

 edges ; back olive-brown ; sides of the face and sides of the body 

 dusky ochreous brown ; a pale narrow line over the eye and along 

 tlie sides of the crown ; base of lores and chin, white with black 

 hair-like tips to the feathers ; throat, breast, and abdomen dark 

 ash-grey ; thighs and under tail-coverts ochreous ; under wing- 

 coverts and inner edges of quills below pale cinnamon-buff, 

 reuuiinder of quill-lining dark hair-brown. 



Total length 145 mm,, exposed culmen 13, wing Gl, tail 09, 

 tarsus Ic^. 1- 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male. Wing 60 mm. 



