EircORYSTES. 435 



Section V. OSCINES CULTEIROSTEES. 



Pam. ICTERID^*. 



Subfam. I. CASSIGINJE. 



Nares, nudae, apertae, aut operculo corneo obteotse; mesorMnium plus minusve dilatatum, clypeum frontalem 

 formans. 



A. Hares apertce haud operculatce. 

 a. Cl^peus frontalis multo dilatatus ad basin incrassatus. 



EUCOEYSTES. 



Eucorystes, Sclater, Ibis, 1883, p. 147; Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xi. p. 311. 



The single species contained in this genus was until lately placed in Ocyalus, the 

 type and now the only species of which is 0. latirostris of the valley of the Upper 

 Amazons. In 1883 Mr. Sclater separated 0. wagleri from Ocyalus and placed it under 

 a new generic name, Eucorystes, on account of the greater development of the frontal 

 shield, its extension backwards to a line between the middle of the eyes, its incurved 

 culmen, nuchal crest, and shorter wings. 



The bill of Eucorystes wagleri is elongated and acute, the culraen slightly decurved, 

 the edges of the maxilla looked at from above are concave, the frontal shield is much 

 expanded at the base, its proximal margin nearly semicircular and thickened so as to 

 form a fold over the forehead ; this swollen plate is continued forwards so as to form a 

 sort of ridge overhanging the nostrils, which are oval, without any surrounding mem- 

 brane, and directed forwards ; the mandible is swollen towards the base, the lower 

 angle of the sheath reaching backwards as far as the proximal edge of the frontal 

 shield ; the legs are stout and of insessorial structure, the tarsi being short ; the wings 

 long (though shorter than in Ocyalus latirostris), the fourth primary is the longest, the 

 third being slightly shorter, the second is longer than the fifth, which again is longer 

 than the first ; all the outer primaries are acute though rounded at their tips, the secon- 

 daries are broad but short and graduated ; the tail-feathers are narrow and bluntly 

 pointed, the central feathers are a little longer than the outer pair, the third on either 

 side from the centre are the longest pair; the tail is thus somewhat cuneate, but 

 furcate centrally. 



The range of Eucorystes is given under its only species E. wagleri. 



* This famUy has very recently been thoroughly revised by Mr. Sclater in the eleventh volume of the 

 British Museum Catalogue of Birds, in compiling which the author had the whole of our series of specimens 

 for examination and for incorporation into the National Collection. This catalogue therefore contains a com- 

 plete list of our specimens up to its issue (April 1886). In preparing our account of the Mexican and Central- 

 American species of Icteridae, we have found this work of the greatest service, and we have followed the 

 classification there adopted throughout with very slight modification. 



55* 



