
166 ROCKY MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER. 
As the Rocky Mountain antcatcher is the first and only spe- 
cies hitherto discovered in North America, we shall make 
some general observations on the peculiarities of a genus thus 
introduced into the fauna of the United States. 
Buffon first formed a distinct group of the antcatchers, 
under the name of Fourmiliers, and considered them as allied 
to his Bréves, now forming the genus Pztta of Vieillot, they 
having been previously placed in that of Turdus, Lacépéde 
adopted that group as a genus, and applied to it the name 
of Myrmecophaga. Illiger added such species of the genus 
Lanius of Linné and Latham as are destitute of prominent 
teeth to the bill, and gave to the genus, thus constituted, 
the name of Myzothera, rejecting Lacépéde’s designation, as 
already appropriated to a genus of mammalia. 
Cuvier perceived that some of the Fowrmiliers of Buffon 
were true thrushes; but he retained the remainder as Myio- 
theree, among which he also included the Pitta. Vieillot, 
besides the Pité@, removed some other species, in order to 
place them in his new genera Conopophaga and Thamnophilus, 
giving the name of Myrmothera to the remaining species, with 
the exception of the Myiothera rex, for which he formed a 
distinct genus, with the name of Grallaria. We agree with 
Vieillot in respect to the latter bird; but as regards the 
other species, we prefer the arrangement of Temminck, who 
has adopted the genus Myiothera nearly as constituted by 
Hlliger, including some of the slender-billed Zhamnophili of 
Vieillot, of which our Myiothera obsoleta would probably be 
one, as above stated. 
The genus thus constituted contains numerous species, which 
inhabit the hottest parts of the globe, a greater number of 
them existing in South America than elsewhere. For the 
sake of convenience, several sections may be formed in this 
genus, founded on the characters of the bill, tail, and tarsus ; 
but as we have only one species, it does not rest with us to 
make divisions ; and we shall merely remark, that our obsoleta 
is referable to the last section, consisting of those whose bills 
