BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 311 



Family CAPITONIDiE. 



THE BARBETS. 



=B'MX:onidss Bonaparte, Consp. Av., i, Jan., 1850, 141. 



— Capitonidse (not of Bonaparte, 1850)" Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 329; 



Ibis, 1880, 841.— Htjxlby, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867, 466.— Sclater and 



Salvin, Norn. Av. Neotr., 1873, 108.— Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 



1874, 117. — Forbes, Ibis, 1884, 120. — ^Fuehbringer, Unters. Morpb. Syst. 



V6g., ii, 1888, 1389. — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, ii, 



1896, 547.— Shaepe, Hand-list, ii, 1900, 177. 

 = Megalseminse Stjndevall, Met. Nat. Av. Disp. Tent., ii, 1873, 75 (Englisb 



translation, 1889, 147). 

 = Megalaimidse Stejnegee, Stand. Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 412, 418, in text. 

 = Capitoninx Cabanis, Wiegmann's Arcbiv fur Naturg., 1847, i, 348. — Gadow, 



Bronn's Tbier-Reich, Vog., ii, 1891, 267, 301. 

 = Capitones Sharpe, Rev. Classif. Birds, 1891, 83; Hand-list, ii, 1900, 177. 



Small to large Capitones with the ventral pteryla forked on side of 

 breast as well as on throat; nostril bored directly into the homy 

 rhinotheca (without surrounding or contiguous nasal fossse); pri- 

 maries relatively short, the longest exceeding secondaries by much 

 less than length of culmen, the wing-tip rounded (fifth to seventh 

 primaries longest), the tenth (outermost) primary much less than 

 half as long as the eighth, often not more than half as long as ninth; 

 bill stout to very stout, subcorneal, broad and deep basally, compressed 

 terminally, the cuhnen never very strongly convex; tail decidedly less 

 to slightly more than two-thirds as long as wing, consisting of ten 

 rectrices, more or less rounded, the outermost pair of rectrices a little 

 less than two-thirds to decidedly more than three-fourths as long as 

 middle pair, the rectrices moderately firm, aU normally broadly 

 rounded at tip; tarsus equal to or (usually) longer than culmen, 

 decidedly longer than longest toe with claw, stout, very distinctly 

 scuteUate, the scuteUation holaspidean; anterior toes united or 

 coalesced for whole of basal phalanx, the inner (without claw) reaching 

 to about base of third phalanx of the outer toe; outer posterior toe 

 about as long as outer anterior toe, the inner hind toe about haK as 

 long as the outer, or slightly less; latero-frontal (post-nasal) region 

 with several long, antrorse, hairlike bristles, the rictal region and 

 chin also with similar but less strongly developed bristles; orbital 

 region sometimes partly naked. 



The Barbets are a very homogeneous group of "soansorial" 

 "picarian" birds, related to both the Woodpeckers (Picidse) and the 

 Toucans (Eamphastidae), from both of which they differ in anatomical 

 characters as tabulated on page 2. 



" =BucconidEe. 



