The British Guiana Museum. 263 
colaptidse), specimens are shewn of Dendrornis and 
others, in the flat-case (2), and in the upright case 
below the woodpeckers. These birds have long and 
curved, rather thin bills, broad at the base, and tail 
feathers like those of the woodpecker, the barbs of the 
feathers being absent from the tip, leaving a sharp shaft 
to the tail, to assist the bird in climbing. 
Of the family of the bush-shrikes or ant-thrushes 
(Formicariidas) which still remains to be noticed, a few 
specimens of Thamnophilus, Pithys, etc. are shewn in the 
flat-case {2) at the bottom, and in the upright case 
next to the tyrant-shrikes. In these birds the bills 
are long and strong, not markedly broad and not 
flattened at the base, curved above and compressed at 
the tip, and strongly hooked ; and the nostrils are 
placed just in front of a bunch of bristles. They re- 
semble the shrikes in their habits, but are forest forms 
and are more particularly inseftivorous. 
Of the order Columbse or pigeons, a few mounted 
specimens are shewn next to the mounted cassiques, and 
a few skins in the flat-case (3). This group of birds is 
often classed with the order of the pheasants or poultry, 
but it is distinguished by many characters, some of 
which are easily noticeable. Thus, while it has the 
convex, vaulted upper mandible or jaw of the poultry 
order, yet the vaulting is confined to the tip ; the nostril 
also pierces a curious fleshy projection ; its feet are 
very differently formed from the fowls, being rather 
slender in build, with the toes all on the same level, three 
in front and one behind, adapted for perching ; the 
wings are long and strong, adapted to an arboreal life and 
for sustained flight ; and the young are quite helpless 
LL 2 
