BIEDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 377 



decided crop, and unique trifid tongue, is equally well characterized, and 

 certainly should stand apart, seeming to hold with respect to Coereha 

 [ Gycmerpeii] much the same position that Cham ma does with the wrens. " ' 



Even after removing the genera Conlrostrum and Ateleodacnis^ I am 

 very doubtful as to the naturalness of the group known as the Coere- 

 bidee; but until the internal structure of Diglossa, Diglossopis, Gliloro- 

 vlianes, iJacnis, Ilemidacnis^ and Oreoiiianes shall have been sufficiently 

 investigated, an}' further change in the limits of the supposed family 

 would be premature. I have been strongly tempted to separate, as a 

 distinct family, the genera Diglossa and Diglossopis, on account of the 

 peculiar and very remarkable modification of the basal portion of the 

 mandible, these two genera differing from all other Coerebidas in hav- 

 ing the gonydeal angle decidedly posterior to the nostril — a character 

 quite unique, so far as I am at present aware, in the Order Passeri- 

 formes, or at least the Suborder Oscines. 



The Honey-Creepers, or Guit-Guits, are peculiar to the forest-clad 

 regions of tropical America, the family, like so many other Neotrop- 

 ical groups, being most developed in the basin of the Amazon and 

 adjacent parts of Colombia and Ecuador. One genus [Ccereba) is most 

 numerously represented in the West Indies, where almost every island 

 possesses its peculiar form. One genus {Glossiptila), the representa 

 tive of a distinct subfamily (Glossiptilinse) is peculiar to Jamaica. 

 Altogether about seventy-five species and eleven genera are recognized, 

 of which six genera, but only about twenty -five species, occur within 

 the geographic field of this work. 



KEY TO THE GENERA OP CCEREBID^. 



a. Bill much compressed, with tip of maxilla abruptly hooked or uncinate; mandi- 

 bular rami very short, the gonydeal angle decidedly posterior to the nostril. 



Diglossa (p. 378) 



aa. Bill not much compressed; tip of maxilla not abruptly hooked or uncinate; 



mandibular rami of normal length, the gonydeal angle anterior to the nostril. 



h. Exposed culmen equal to or longer than tarsus; bill more subulate, the tip 



obtuse; maxillary tomium more or less obviously notched subterminally. 



c. Outermost (ninth) primary shorter than sixth; wing-tip not longer than tarsus, 



the latter longer than middle toe with claw; adult males glossy green with 



pileum and sides of head black;' adult females duller in color, without 



black on head Clilorophanes (p. 382) 



'Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xvii, 309. 



^ These two genera, both of which are peculiarly South American, and therefore 

 extra-limital to the present work, I have been obliged to remove from the Coerebidse 

 and transfer to the iMniotiltida;, or else, as the only alternative, combine the two 

 families into one, the birds of these two genera being, so far as external characters are 

 concerned, quite inseparable from the last-named group. Unfortunately, their ana- 

 tomical structure has not been investigated; but I believe that when this has been done 

 it will be found that they too, like another supposedly Coerebine genus {Certhidea) 

 possess the Mniotiltine type of tongue and palate. (See Lucas: "The Anatomy and 

 Affinities of Certhidea," in Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xvii, 1894, 309, 310.) 



'A South American species (C. purpurascens) is violet-blue with blackish wings 

 and tail but without black pileum; the adult female unknown. 



