MIMUS. 



371 



Family MIMID^. 



This family is represented in South America by three genera, 

 and at the time when Brabourne and Chubb published their ' List 

 of the Birds of South America,' eighteen species. One genus and 

 one species occur in British Guiana. 



■ Genus MIMUS Boie. 

 Mimus Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 972. Type M. polyglottus (Linn.). 



Fig. 143. — To illustrate the shape of the bill. 



One of the chief characters in this genus is that the tail is 

 usually longer than the wing. The bill is decurved at the tip and 

 slio-htly hooked. The wing is rounded, the third, fourth, fifth, 

 and sixth primaries are longest and subequal, the second is shorter 

 than the seventh but longer than the eighth. The tail is rounded 

 at the tip and rather longer than the wing. The tarsus is about 

 twice the length of the exposed culmen, and the middle toe and 

 claw five-sixths the length of the tarsus. Coloration: male and 

 female similar. 



576. Mimus gilvus. 



Graceful Mocking-bird. 



Turdus gilvus "Vieill. Ois. Amer. Sept. ii. p. 15, pi. 68 bis, 1807 



(Guiana). 

 Mimus gilvus Sharps, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vi. p. 350, 1881 (British 



Guiana) ; Salvin, Ibis, 1885, p. 199 (Roraima, 2700-3700 ft.) ; 



Brabourne & Chubb, B. S. Amer. i. p. 341, no. 3491, 1912. 



Adult female. Crown of head, back, scapulars, and upper tail- 

 coverts with dark shaft-lines to the feathers on the head ; upper 

 wing-coverts similar to the back but somewhat darker ; median and 

 greater series dark brown, with pale edges to the feathers like 

 the innermost secondaries ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and 



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