454 MOMOTID^, 



Order COCCYGES. 



Suborder COCCYGES ANISO DACTYLS. 



Fam. MOMOTID^. 



Sclater, P. Z. S. 1857, p. 248 ; Murie, Ibis, 1872, p. 383 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvii. 

 p. 313 (1892). 



The Momotidse form a very homogeneous family of birds peculiar to the Neotropical 

 Eegion. The nearest ally is no doubt the lodidae of the Greater Antilles, and a more 

 remote relationship to the Alcedinidse is harJly questioned. The chief connected 

 memoirs on the family are three: — one by Mr. Sclater, published in 1857, in which 

 four genera and seventeen species were admitted; one by Dr. Murie in 1872, in which 

 the osteological characters of several species were examined, the genera admitted being 

 also four, but not with the same limits as Mr. Sclater's. The third memoir is by 

 Mr. Sharpe, who, in the ' Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,' recognized seven 

 genera and eighteen species. Unfortunately the key to the genera is, to a great extent, 

 vitiated owing to a wrong estimate of the number of rectrices in several cases, and to 

 the value placed on certain characters leading to an unnatural arrangement. 



In revising the family we think that six genera are as many as can be recognized, 

 Jlrospatha merging with Baryphtliengus, and we are in some doubt if Aspatfia should 

 be separated from Ilylomanes. 



Five of these six genera have ten rectrices, Momotus alone having twelve. In 

 BarypMhmgus the antrorse loral feathers are longer than in any of the other genera 

 and reach beyond the nostrils ; in Hylomanes they are shortest, Aspatha hardly diflfering. 

 Other characters are concisely included in the following key : — 



A. Bill compressed, stout, serration of the tomia large. 



a. Rectrices 12 Momotus. 



b. Rectrices 10 Baryphthengus. 



B. Bill wide, serration small ; rectrices 10. 



c. Culmen rounded Eumomota. 



d. Culmen flattened, serration of tomia minute Prionornis *. 



C. Bill moderate, tarsi relatively to the wing long ; rectrices 10. 



e. Tail longer than the wing, serration of tomia moderate Aspatha. 



/. Tail and wing subequal, serration of tomia small Hylomanes. 



In the above key it will be seen that no use is made of the presence or absence of 



spatules at the end of the two central rectrices. These spatules are now known to be 



produced by the birds themselves, the feathers in a natural state being at the most 



narrowed at the place where the webs are subsequently stripped off. In 1873 (P. Z. S. 



* A name suggested by Mr. Sclater in place of his Prionirhynchus, which is preoccupied [Crustacea : 

 Jacquinot and Lucas, Voy. au Pole Sud, Zool. iii. Crust, p. 8 (1853)]. 



