Genus— PYCNOPTILUS. 
Pycnoptilus Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.), 1850, p. 95, 
March 14th, 1851. Type (by monotypy) P. floccosus Gould. 
Small “ Cinclosomatine ? ” birds with short bill, short rounded wings, long 
rounded tail and long slender legs with small feet. 
The bill is about half the length of the head, laterally compressed, a little 
expanded basally, the tip a little decurved and obsoletely notched ; the nasal 
groove is less than half the length of the bill, the nostrils appearing as linear 
slits, operculate, nasal feathering almost obscuring them ; the rictal bristles 
small but noticeable ; the under mandible weak and the rami short and little 
divergent, the interramal space small and feathered. 
The wing very rounded, the first feather about half the length of the third, 
the second midway between first and third, the fourth a little longer than the 
third and rest, fourth to tenth, subequal, the secondaries scarcely shorter 
and longer than the third primary. 
The tail is long and rounded, the feathers broad, the tail-coverts short. 
The legs are long and slender, booted in front and bilaminate behind ; 
the toes are slender, the middle toe longest, without claw, longer than inner 
toe with claw which is same length as outer, the claws being very short ; \the 
hind-toe is about equal to the inner, but its claw is twice as long as the claw 
of the inner but still short ; all the toes are small. 
As suggested by the hereafter quoted field naturalists, probably a close 
relation is Hylacola, and both are nearly related to Sericornis or even more 
nearly to Galamanthus. 
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