P l a t e X C I I I .
TI IRIPADECTES FLAMMULATUS.
(STEIPED BUSH-HOPPEE).
Anabates flammu la tu s
Tkripadecies flam m u la tu s
E y to n , C on tr. to O m . 1849, p. 131.
Sclater, P.Z.S. 1855, p. 141,
S elater, Ca t. A. B, p. 157.
Fusco-niger, plumia omnibus strig a la ta lin e ari pallidè fulva scapam occu p an te o rn atis : alis e s tù s e t dorso postico
ru fis : te ctric ib u s supra-caudalibus cum c audâ to ta rubiginoso-rufis ; su b a larib u s cinuamomeis : ro s tro n ig ro : pedibus
co rneis: long, to ta 4'8 , alæ 3-8, caudæ rec tr. med. 4 '2 , e s t. 2 7, ta rs i l '2 , r o s tr i a ric tu 1 0 .
S a b . in No và G ran ad â intc riore .
The generic name Anabates was first propounded by Temminck in- 1820, in the “ Analyse
dll Système Général d’Ornithologie” attached to the second edition o f his well-known Manual
o f Ornithology, and has been very generally applied to the group o f birds to which the species
we now figure belongs. It unfortunately happens, however, that Temminck has given as
the type o f his genus tho Motacilla guianensis o f Gmelin,* wliich, as Messrs. Cabanis and Heine
bave shewn, is a species o f Synallaxisfi Under these circumstances Anabates can be correctly
regarded only as a useless synonym o f Synallaxis, and the name PMJydor o f Spix, being the
next oldest in point o f date, must take its place.
The present bird, althougli agi-eeing with Philydor and its allies in general sfructure, and
obviously belonging to the same group, stands very much apart from every other known species,
[is short stout hill with the culmen strongly incurved is wider at the base and less compressed
laterally than is usual in this group. Mv. Eyton states that in this part o f its structure it
resembles Anabates cristatus, Spix, the type o f the genus Homonis. But in the present species
the hill is much shorter aud more robust than in the last-named bird, and the form o f the nostrils
is essentially different. In Homorus the nasal aperture is long and Imeiform, and not depressed
below the surface o f the bill ; in the present species it is oval and sunk in a shallow sulcus.
We cannot therefore refer our bird to Homoms, nor to any other recognised division o f the
gi-oup, and must continue Sclater’s practice o f placing it as the type o f an independent genus.
The wings o f Thripadectes are short and rounded as in most foi-ms o f the group, the fifth
and sixth primaries being nearly equal and longest and the first more than an inch shorter.
The tail is likewise much graduated, the medial rectriccs being in. sliorter than the external
* Fo u n d e d on Buffon’s PI. En l. 686, fi t Mus. lie iu . ii, p. 27.