THE IBIS. 
THIRD SERIES. 
No. XV.—JULY 1874. 
XXIII.— On the Neotropical Species of the Family Pteropto- 
chidse. By P. L. Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.E.S. 
(Plate VIII.) 
In 1831 the zoological traveller Kittlitz established the genus 
Pteroptochus upon three new species of birds which he had 
observed in Chili in 1827, during his sojourn there with the 
expedition of the ‘’Seniavin/ He distinguished them princi¬ 
pally by their remarkably short and rounded wings—never 
used in flight according to his observations, and their large 
feet and strong curved claws. He considered them allied to 
the Wrens (Troglodytes) , and referred what is actually another 
member of the same group of birds (Triptorhinus paradoxus ), 
which he discovered at the same time, to the genus Tro¬ 
glodytes. 
About the same period this singular group of birds attracted 
the attention of the distinguished French explorer AlcideD’Or- 
bigny. Besides two of the Chilian species already obtained 
by Kittlitz, IPOrbigny discovered a still more remarkable form 
in Northern Patagonia, which, on his return home, he de¬ 
scribed in conjunction with M. Isidore Geoffroy as Rhinomya 
lanceolata. M. IPOrbigny more correctly referred the group 
ser. hi.—VOL. iv. p 
