BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 475 



Genus OREOTHLYPIS Ridgway. 



OreotUypis Ridgway, Auk, i, Apr., 1884, 169, in text. (Type, Compsothlypis gut- 

 iuralis Cabanis. ) 



Similar to HelminthopMla but tail relatively longer (difference 

 between length of tail and length of wing decidedly less than length 

 of tarsus), and style of coloration very different. 



Bill much shorter than head, narrowly wedge-shaped, very acute, 

 with straight culmen and gonys; moderately compressed, the maxil- 

 lary tomium without subterminal notch. Nostril longitudinally oval 

 or subcuneate, with broad superior operculum or membrane. Rictal 

 bristles obsolete. Wing rather long, with tip rather rounded (ninth 

 primary shorter than sixth, the eighth, seventh, and sixth longest and 

 nearly equal; wing-tip about equal to tarsus (in 0. siiperciliosa) or 

 shorter (in 0. gutturalis). Tail equal to distance from bend of wing 

 to tips of secondaries and slightly rounded (in 0. gutturalis) or decid- 

 edly longer and emarginate {0. superclliosa), the rectrices rather 

 narrow. Tarsus much longer than commissure, a little more than 

 one-fourth as long as wing, its scutella indistinct (sometimes fused on 

 outer side); middle toe, with claw, decidedly shorter than tarsus; basal 

 phalanx of middle toe united for more than half its length to both 

 outer and inner toes (to the outer toe for most of its length in 0. 

 superdliosa). 



Coloration.- — Grray above, with black patch on back, the throat and 

 chest orange; or gray and olive-green above with broad and conspic- 

 uous white superciliary stripe, the throat, chest, and breast yellow, 

 with a spot of chestnut on center of chest. 



Nidification unknown. 



5a«.^e.— Highlands of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Chiriqui. 

 (Two species.) 



This genus is very distinct from Compsothlypis, to which the slight 

 resemblance, chiefly of coloration in one species, is purely superficial. 

 Structurally, in the absence of rictal bristles and less amount of adhe- 

 sion between basal portion of middle and outer toes, and in the longer 

 tail, it comes much nearer to Helminthophila, from which it is to be 

 distinguished chiefly by the relatively longer tail and different style of 

 coloration. 



The two species referred to OreotUypis differ conspicuously in their 

 coloration and to a considerable extent in structural details, and may 

 possibly be wrongly associated. 0. superdliosa has the anterior toes 

 considerably more united at the base, the basal phalanx of the middle 

 toe being joined for most of its length to the outer toe and for more 

 than half its length to the inner, while in 0. gutturalis the fusion 

 extends for about half the distance of the phalanx on each side. 



