208 
ROCKY MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER. 
cophaga, Illiger added such species of the genus Lanius of 
Linne and Latham, as are destitute of prominent teeth to the 
bill, and gave to the genus, thus constituted, the name of 
Myiothera; rejecting LacepMe’s designation, as already ap- 
propriated to a genus of mammalia. 
Cuvier perceived that some of the Fourmiliers of Buffon 
were true thrushes ; but he retained the remainder as Myio- 
thercs^ among which he also included the PittcB. Vieillot, be- 
sides the Pittce^ 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 Illiger, inclu- 
ding some of the slender-billed Thamnophili 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 ohsoleta is re- 
ferable to the last section, consisting of those whose bills are 
the most slender, elongated, and arcuated, in company with 
the Turdus lineatus of Gmelin. 
The antcatchers may justly be enumerated amongst the 
benefactors of mankind, as they dwell in regions where the 
ants are so numerous, large, and voracious, that, without their 
agency, co-operating with that of the Myrmecophagajubata^ and 
a few other ant-eating quadrupeds, the produce of the soil 
would inevitably be destroyed in those fertile parts of the globe. 
The ant-hills of South America are often more than twenty 
feet in diameter, and many feet in height. These wonderful 
