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Show 1893.] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON A RARE ARGENTINE BIRD. 167 ' Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,' in which all reference to Pachyrhamphus albinucha was unaccountably omitted. In 1891 Mr. Ridgvvay discovered a specimen of Pachyrhamphus albinucha, received from Dr. Burmeister himself, among the treasures of the U. S. National Museum, where it had lain unnoticed for 17 years, and gave an excellent account of it in the ' Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum,' no. 870, which, according to the list of the " dates of publication " printed along with the " Contents," was published on Oct. 22nd of that year. Mr. Ridgway pointed oat that the bird is not a true Pachyrhamphus, and instituted a new genus, " Xenopsaris," for its reception, referring it to the subfamily Lipaugina? of the Cotingida?. At about the same date as the rediscovery of this little bird at Washington, an example of it, transmitted by Herr Fritz Schulz, appears to have reached another centre of ornithological work, Berlin, and to have attracted Dr. Cabanis's attention. Dr. Cabanis also recognized the necessity of separating this form from Pachyrhamphus, and referred it to a new genus of Tyrannida?, " Pros-poietus," to be placed near Serphophaga. On reading these two notices, and knowing that there was no specimen of this peculiar bird in this country, I wrote to Dr. Carlos Berg, who had succeeded Dr. Burmeister in the Directorship of the National Museum of Buenos Ayres, and asked him to procure me some examples of it. This, in reply, he kiudly promised to do if possible, and in the meantime sends for examination one of the typical specimens belonging to the Museum of Buenos Ayres, which I have now the pleasure of exhibiting. As regards the systematic position of this form I agree very nearly with Mr. Ridgway, aud, in order to render the subject complete, I append to these remarks his generic and specific characters of this little-known bird very slightly modified. Genus XENOPSARIS. Xenopsaris, Ridgway, Bull. U. S. N. Mus. xiv. p. 479 (Oct. 1891). Prospoietus, Cab. Bericht orn. Gresellsch. Berlin, ix. p. 4 (Nov. 1891). Char. gen. Similar to Casiornis, Bp., but bill very much smaller, narrower, and more elevated at the base, with culmen gradually curved throughout its length; nasal and rictal bristles much less developed ; tail nearly as long as the wing, emarginate and rounded (i. e. double-rounded), the feathers rather narrow ; primaries exceeding secondaries by more than length of bill; the second, third, and fourth quills nearly equal and longest; first primary equal to sixth; tarsus about equal to length of bill measured from the rictus; middle toe considerably shorter than tarsus (slightly less than exposed culmen); feathers of pileum lengthened and broad, forming, when erected, a full rounded crest; along each side of the lower back and rump a conspicuous tuft of pure white cottony feathers. Colour (both sexes) greyish above, with glossy |