Plate XCIII. 



THRIPADECTES FLAMMULATUS. 



(STEIPED BUSH-HOPPEK). 



Anabates flammulatus 



•>■> ■>■> 



Thripadectes flammulatus 



Eyton, Contr. to Orn. 1849, p. 131. 

 Sclater, P.Z.S. 1855, p. 141. 

 Sclater, Cat. A. B. p. 157. 



Eusco-niger, plumis omnibus striga lata lineari pallide fulva scapam occupante ornatis : alis extiis et dorso postico 

 runs : tectricibus supra-caudalibus cum cauda tota rubiginoso-rufis ; subalaribus cinnamomeis : rostro nigro : pedibus 

 corneis: long, tota 4'8, alee 3*8, caudsD rectr. med. 4'2, ext. 2*7, tarsi 1*2, rostri a rictu 1*0. 



Hah. in Nova Granada interiore. 



The generic name Anabates was first propounded by Temminck in 1820, in the " Analyse 

 du System e General d'Ornithologie" attached to the second edition of his well-known Manual 

 of Ornithology, and has been very generally applied to the group of birds to which the species 

 we now figure belongs. It unfortunately happens, however, that Temminck has given as 

 the type of his genus the Motacilla guianensis of Gmelin,* which, as Messrs. Cabanis and Heine 

 have shewn, is a species of Synallaxis.^ Under these circumstances Anabates can be correctly 

 regarded only as a useless synonym of Synallaxis, and the name PMlydor of Spix, being the 

 next oldest in point of date, must take its place. 



The present bird, although agreeing with PMlydor and its allies in general structure, and 

 obviously belonging to the same group, stands very much apart from every other known species. 

 Its short stout bill with the culmen strongly incurved is wider at the base and less compressed 

 laterally than is usual in this group. Mr. Eyton states that in this part of its structure it 

 resembles Anabates cristatus, Spix, the type of the genus Homorus. But in the present species 

 the bill is much shorter and more robust than in the last-named bird, and the form of the nostrils 

 is essentially different. In Homorus the nasal aperture is long and lineiform, and not depressed 

 below the surface of the bill ; in the present species it is oval and sunk in a shallow sulcus. 

 We cannot therefore refer our bird to Homorus, nor to any other recognised division of the 

 group, and must continue Sclater's practice of placing it as the type of an independent genus. 



The wings of Thripadectes are short and rounded as in most forms of the group, the fifth 

 and sixth primaries being nearly equal and longest and the first more than an inch shorter. 

 The tail is likewise much graduated, the medial rectrices being 1| in. shorter than the external 



* Founded on Buffon's PL Enl. 686, fig. 2. 



[185] 



f Mus. Hem. ii. p. 27. 



