460 Mr. R. Ridgway on Empidoclianes fuscatus fyc, 
colour of the wing-bands is almost exactly the same. The 
yellow of the lower parts, however, is not quite so deep, the 
breast is a decidedly more greenish olive, and the under¬ 
wing-coverts much paler yellow. 
XLII.— On Empidochanes fuscatus (Maoc.) and Empidonax 
brunneus, Ridgw. By Robert Ridgway. 
Empidonax brunneus was first described in the f History of 
North-American Birds/ vol. ii. (1874), p. 363, and was based 
on a specimen collected by Captain T. J. Page, U.S.N., during 
his exploration of the Parana in 1850. In addition to the 
type (No. 20970, U. S. Nat. Mus., orig. no. 54, Parana, 
March 1850), the collection of the United States National 
Museum contains another specimen (No. 23984), but the 
exact locality of the latter is unknown. 
It has usually been considered (although I cannot find 
that such an opinion has been published) that Empidonax 
brunneus was merely Empidochanes fuscatus (Max.), rede¬ 
scribed ; but that this is not the case I am now able to de¬ 
monstrate, having had the opportunity, through the courtesy 
of the Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History 
in New York city, of examining the types of Muscipeta fus- 
cata, Max. (still existing in the Maximilian collection, for some 
years the property of that Institution), and of comparing 
them with the two specimens of Empidonax brunneus. 
The differences between the two birds are very marked, 
involving, as they do, not merely the specific but also the 
generic characters. In coloration they present a rather close 
superficial resemblance to one another \ but E. brunneus has 
the under mandible wholly light-coloured, the upper parts 
decidedly more olivaceous, and the wing-bands paler and less 
ochraceous. 
The genus Empidochanes differs from Empidonax mainly in 
the much less depressed and relatively longer and narrower 
bill, longer and decidedly rounded tail, and stouter feet. All 
these characters are shared about equally by the three very 
