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Show 576 MR. SCLATER ON THE GENUS ORNITHION. [Julie 17, The canines are small and spurious. The nasals are open in rear, admitting the frontals between in wedge form ; and the pointed sutures are zigzag and mazy, showing that they have the weight and strain of horns to bear. The horn-pedicles are very slender, more so even than in Cervulus; and the frontal is only thickened behind the orbit. Incisors: the two central large and flat, the next on each side as broad as the two lateral taken together. Molars, in young state, four on each side above and below, the hindmost one just beginning to show. Mr. Kopsch has tried hard to get the horns of this species ; but the season has passed and he has not succeeded ; and no other specimen has come to market. I should judge, from the appearance of the specimen in hand, that the horns will be very slender, and probably of some strange form, which, taken with the cranial peculiarities of the beast, will entitle it to subgeneric separation. However, we must get the horns before we can venture on that. It may turn out to be a Rusine Roebuck. 6. Note on the Genus Ornithion of Hartlaub. By P. L. S C L A T E R , M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., & c In 1853 Dr. Hartlaub established the genus Ornithion, belonging to the Tyrannidae, and described a single species (O. inerme) from a specimen in the Bremen collection. Although I have long well known this little bird from the typical example, kindly sent to me for examination by the describer, it is only recently, in spite of the enormous number of American bird-skins that have passed through my hands, that I have succeeded in obtaining a skin of it for m y own collection. The acquisition of this second specimen has caused m e to examine the form more closely; and I have come to the conclusion that Ornithion cannot be well kept apart from the bird named by Cabanis Myiopatis pusilla, which is again identical with Camptostoma flaviventre, Scl. et Salv. I have also resolved that the two other species of Myiopatis of Cab. and Heine may be naturally located in the same genus, which is remarkable amongst the Tyrannidae for its small short compressed bill, without any trace of rictal bristles. If this course be adopted the synonymy of the genus will stand as follows :- Genus ORNITHION. 1853. Ornithion,Hartl.J.f.0.1853, Type. p. 35 O. inerme, Hartl. 1857. Camptostoma, Scl. P. Z. S. 1857, p. 203 C. imberbe, Scl. 1859. Myiopatis, Cab. et Hein. Mus. Hein. ii. p. 58 Muscipeta incanescens, Max. Diagnoses specierum. a. ventre flavo: tectricibus alarum albo (aut fiavido) distincte terminatis. {loris distincte albis: cauda breviore 1 • inerme. loris obscuris: cauda longiore 2, pusillum. |