Genus — S PHECOTHERES. 
Sphecothek.es Vieillot, Analyse nouv. Ornith., p. 42, 
April 14, 1816. Type (by monotypy) S. viridis Vieillot. 
Also spelt — 
Sphecotera Vieillot, ib,, p. 68. 
Picnoramphus Rosenberg, Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind., 
Vol. XXIX., p. 143, 1866. Type (by monotypy) P. cucullatus Rosenberg. 
Large Sphecotherine birds with stout bills, bare eye spaces, long pointed 
wings, long square tail and short stout legs and feet. 
The culmen is arched, the point sharp and strongly decurved, a posterior 
notch being generally developed ; the ridge is roundly keeled, the side slopes 
steep but basally expanding below the nasal groove ; the nasal groove is short 
and the nasal apertures appear placed as semi-perpendicular ovals succeeded 
by a membranous operculum : the lower mandible is stout and triangular, the 
rami fusing into a stout gonys at about half the length of the bill ; the inter- 
ramal space is fully feathered : there is a large bare space surrounding the 
eye, and rictal bristles appear to be absent. 
The wings are long and rather pointed : the first primary short, about 
half the length of the third which is longest, the fourth a little less, the fifth a 
little shorter still, the sixth about equal to the second, the seventh and eighth 
much less and little exceeding the secondaries though these are much longer 
than the first primary. 
The tail is long and square, about two -thirds the length of the wing. 
The legs are short and stout, anteriorly with about six strong scutes, 
posteriorly bilaminate but obscurely a scutation is sometimes seen ; the toes 
are short and stout, normally passerine, hind-toe large, as is hind claw ; the 
outer and inner subequal, the middle toe longest and with claw about equal to 
hind-toe and claw. 
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