l80 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Suborder CLATvlATORES 



This suborder, which is also called Mesomyodi or Clamatores, includes 

 the so-called screamers or nonmelodious Passeres, in which the syrinx is 

 less fully developed and has less than 4 pairs of intrinsic muscles. These 

 muscles are inserted at the middle of the upper bronchial half rings. The 

 tarsus is scutelliplantar; toes scutellate and not laminate; there are 10 

 fully developed primaries. 



This suborder in North America includes only the flycatchers and 

 cotingas, the flycatchers alone being represented in New York. In general 

 appearance, habits and voice they are easily distinguishable from the rest 

 of the Passerine birds, although some of them actually sing as complicated 

 songs as many representatives of the Oscines or true songbirds. 



Family TYRA.JJNIDA.E 



American Flycatchers 



Family characters. Tarsi covered with rows of scutella forming 

 cylindrical plates enveloping the tarsus like a segmented scroll; primaries 

 ID, the first well developed and often the longest; tail feathers 12; wing 

 coverts more than half the length of the secondaries; hind claw as long as 

 the middle claw; feet small and weak; tarsus short; the front toes coherent 

 at the base, especially the outer to the middle; bill broad and flattened, 

 gradually tapering to a sharp point, abruptly bent downward near the 

 tip, and notched at the beginning of the bend; bill very light, the upper 

 mandible partly hollow; culmen smooth and transversely arched; com- 

 missure nearly straight to the bend; nostrils near the base of the bill, small 

 and round, sparsely concealed by bristles; gape large, reaching nearly 

 beneath the eye, its angles furnished with flaring bristles; wing and tail 

 ample; shoulders broad; short neck; large head; short legs; coloration of 

 our native species mostly somber, without spots or streaks. 



In this family about 83 genera are described, all American, being well 

 represented in tropical America. Of the New York species, 3 or 4 resemble 

 each other so closely that it is almost impossible to distinguish them in 

 the field; but they differ individually in habitat, notes, nesting site, structure 

 of the nest, and marking of the eggs, so that these particulars are more 

 diagnostic in field work than the appearance of these species. Our fly- 



