8 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
Family FORMICARIIDA.. 
THE ANTBIRDS. 
Mytotheride Bors, Isis, 1826, 973.—HuxueEy, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867, 471, in 
text. 
>Eriodoride CABANIS, Wiegmann’s Archiv fir Naturg., 1847, pt. i, 209, 336 
(includes Pteroptochide, Pittidee, and Menuridee!). , 
>Formicariide ScuateR, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1858, 202; Cat. Am. Birds, 1862 
170 (includes Conopophagide).—Carus, Handb. Zool., 1868, 268. 
<Eriodoridz CaBanis and Herne, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 11 (excludes Formicarii. 
dee, part). 
X Hypocnemidide Capanis and Herne, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 1 (includes Pittidee 
and Conopophagide; excludes Formicariide, part). 
=Formicartide GARROD, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1877, 452.—StesNEGER, Stand. 
Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 477.—Satvin and Gopman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, ii, 
1892, 193. 
=Formicartine Gapow, Bronn’s Thier-Reichs, Vég., ii, 1891, 276. 
Tracheophone Mesomyodian Passeres with the metasternum 2- 
notched, tensor patagii brevis tendon normally passerine, interorbital 
septum perforate, postorbital process large (sometimes joining the pro- 
cessus squamosi), maxillopalatines strap-shaped (crossing posterior 
end of the olfactory fossa and passing backward beyond the level of 
the median descending plate of the palatine); vomer long and broad; 
nares holorhinal, the anterior nares inclosed by a bony wall, leaving 
a wide aperture at proximal end of nasal fossa between the pre- 
maxillary and the descending process of the nasal; syrinx tracheal, 
one pair of tracheo-bronchial muscles arising from the trachea and 
attached to one or more of the bronchial semirings, or else one pair 
inserted on distal end of the trachea; mesorhinium normal; nostrils 
not conspicuously (often not at all) operculate; tarsal envelope 
taxaspidean or holaspidean, or fused (nonscutellate); basal phalanx 
of middle toe more or less united to lateral toes, usually for at least 
half its length to outer toe, for less than half to inner toe, in some 
genera also united for part of second phalanx to outer toe; outer toe 
decidedly shorter than middle toe and slightly longer than inner toe; 
hallux as long as inner toe or slightly to decidedly shorter, slightly 
stouter to much stouter; claws moderate in size and curvature to 
short and slightly curved, that of the hallux always shorter than the 
digit; maxilla with tip more or less conspicuously uncinate, with 
distinct subterminal tomial notch, the mandibular tomium also 
notched subterminally (this notch sometimes minute or indistinct, 
however). Wing moderate in size to rather large, more or less con- 
spicuously concave beneath, always much rounded, but usually with 
longer primaries extending decidedly beyond secondaries; tenth 
(outermost) primary never more than three-fourths as long as the 
longest, usually about three-fifths to two-thirds as long. Tail vari- 
able as to relative length, rarely longer than wing, usually shorter 
