BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 15 



In Dr. Gadow's latest classification of birds (Bronn's Their-Reichs, 

 Vogel, ii, Systematischer Theil, 1893, pp. 299-302; Classification of 

 Vertebrata, 1898, pp. 37, 38) the main divisions of the Passeriformes 

 are somewhat difl^erent, the order being- divided into two suborders, 

 as above, but with different limits: Passeriformes ani.somyodi, with 

 groups Subclamatores ( = Desmodactyli) and Clamatores; and Passeri- 

 formes diacromyodi, with groups Suboscines (=Pseudoscine8) and 

 Oscines. (See also Newton's Dictionary of Birds, Introduction, p. 

 105.) It will thus be seen that instead of making a primary division 

 of the Desmodactyli, as opposed to all the remaining Passeriformes, 

 Dr. Gadow draws the line more nearly through the middle of the 

 order, with Desmodactyli (his Subclamatores) and the Clamatores on one 

 side and the diacromyodian Eleutherodactyli (Oscines and Pseudoscines) 

 on the other. This arrangement of Dr. Gadow's appears to be based 

 mainly, if not entirely, upon differences in the arrangement of the 

 vocal muscles, as follows: 



a. Syringeal rtiuscles "unequally inserted, either in the middle or upon only one or 



the other, dorsal or ventral, end of the [bronchial] semirings" Anisomyodi. 



aa. Syringeal muscles "attached to the dorsal and some to the ventral ends [of the 

 bronchial semirings] , those ends being, so to say, equally treated." 



Diacromyodi. 



In the arrangement of the syringeal muscles the Desmodactyli there- 

 fore agree with the Clamatores, these two groups constituting the 

 Anisomyodi of Gadow. While hesitating long to commit myself in 

 opposition to so learned and distinguished an authority, I nevertheless 

 can not, in the absence of other reasons in support of Dr. Gadow's 

 views (and none appear to have been adduced), believe that this agree- 

 ment between the Eurylaimidse and the Clamatores outweighs the differ- 

 ences set forth above, which trenchantly separate the former not only 

 from the Clamatores but from all other Passeriformes — the more 

 especially so since such disposition of the Eurj'laimidifi does not affect 

 the classification of the remaining members of the order on the lines 

 drawn by Dr. Gadow. 



The Suborder Desmodactyli' has no representation in America. It 

 is a small group (of about a dozen species and five genera) confined to 

 the Indo-Alalayan region, where it takes the place of the rather closely 

 related haploophone Clamatores (especially the famil}^ Cotingidse) of 

 the Neotropical region. 



^Desmodactyli Forbes, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1880, 390, 391. — Ewylaimoidtx 

 Stejnegee, Stand. Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 462. — E'tirj/Za^xi Seebohji, Classif. Birds, 1890, 

 vii, xi, 4; Shakpe, Rev. Reo. At. Classif. Birds, 1891, 84. — Passeres Subclamatores 

 G.4D0W, Bronn's Thier-Reichs, Vog., ii, 1893, 274. — Subclamatores Gadow, Bronn's 

 Thier-Reichs, Vog., ii, 1893, 301; Classif. Vertebr., 1898, 3'. 



