26 BIRDS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 



Genus MTRMOTHERULA Scl. 

 Myrmotherula Sclater, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 234. Type M.pygmea (Gmel.)- 



Fig. 13. — Myrmotherula pygmcea. 



The type of this genus is conspicuous by its small size, the 

 absence of a crest, the small and slender bill which is sharply 

 hooked, the rounded wing, the third, fourth, and fifth primaries 

 longest, and the second about equal to the seventh, the tail short 

 and rounded, longer than the culmen but shorter than the tarsus. 

 Male and female different in colour. 



Key to the Species. 



A. Abdomen uniform yellow, throat white. M. pygmaa, 6 , p. 26. 

 a. Throat yellowish bufE M.pygmtea, 5,p.27. 



B. Abdomen and throat white profusely 



streaked with black M. surinamensis, 6 , p. 27. 



h. Throat and abdomen pale fawn-colour 



sparsely streaked M. surinamensis, $ , p. 28. 



364. Myrmotherula pygmsea. 

 Pygmt Ant-bird. 



Muscicapa pygmcsa Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 933, 1789 (Cayenne). 



JPormicivora pygmcsa Cab. in Schomb. Eeis. Guian. iii. p. 688, 1848. 



Myrmotherula pygmaa Salvin, Ibis, 1885, p. 425 (Bartica Grove, 

 Camacusa); Sclater, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xv. p. 231, 1890; Bia- 

 boume & Chubb, B. S. Amer. i. p. 196, no. 1961, 1912. 



Adult male. General colour of the upper surface black, the 

 feathers edged with white or sulphur-yellow, narrowly on the 

 head, hind-neck, and outer webs of primary and secondary quills, 

 and more broadly on the upper wing-coverts ; rump and upper 



