toe, the inner toe slightly but decidedly shorter; hallux as long as inner toe, much stouter; basal phalanx and half of second phalanx of middle toe united to outer toe, the former united for a little more than half its length to inner toe; claws moderate in size and curvature, that of the hallux much shorter than the digit. Plumage full, the scapulars, interscapulars, and feathers of under parts broad, distinctly outlined, and compactly webbed, those of rump and flanks more elongated and lax; feathers of pileum short; loral, suborbital, and postocular regions naked, the ear quite exposed; a tuft or spot of short velvety feathers on upper eyelid.
Coloration. — Pileum grayish brown; throat and chest black; back, scapulars, and wing-coverts olive-brown or tawny-brown with large roundish black spots, the under parts with similar but smaller spots on a more rufescent ground; tail black.
Range. — Nicaragua to Panamá. (Monotypic.[1])
PHÆNOSTICTUS MCLEANNANI MCLEANNANI (Lawrence).
MC'LEANNAN'S ANTTHRUSH.
Adults (sexes alike). — Pileum plain grayish brown (sepia to dark broccoli brown); hindneck chestnut or rufous-chestnut; general color of upper parts light olive-brown (between raw-umber and broccoli brown), each feather of back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and tertials very conspicuously marked with a large roundish or transverse broadly elliptical subterminal spot of black, and broadly margined terminally with pale brownish buff or clay color; tail black or brownish black; loral, orbital, and auricular regions unfeathered, except for scattered bristly feathers on the first and a small patch of black feathers immediately above and another beneath eye, the naked skin azure blue in life; malar region, chin, throat, and upper chest uniform black; lower chest deep cinnamon-rufous, the lower chest similar but slightly paler or duller, each feather with a large
roundish, subcordate, or broadly elliptical transverse spot of black;
- ↑ The genus Phlegopsis Reictienbach (type Myothera nigromaculata Lafresnaye and D'Orbigny), to which the type of Phænostictus has hitherto been referred, differs conspicuously in shorter and slightly rounded tail (only two-thirds as long as wing, graduated for less than one-seventh its length) of, apparently, only 10 rectrices; very dense, plush-like, feathering of forehead and anterior half of loral region; wholly (and densely) feathered malar region; covered ears; weaker bill, with less sharply ridged culmen and less elevated as well as broadly rounded mesorhinium, and wide, smooth, naked space between nostril and loral feathering. The coloration, too, while somewhat similar is really very different, the head, neck, and under parts being uniform black, the remiges and tail chestnut, the feet black instead of yellow, and the naked skin on sides of head yellow instead of blue (in life).
I have not seen Formicarius trivittatus Sclater nor F. erythropterus Gould, both of which are referred by recent authors to Phlegopsis, but, according to descriptions, these are so different in their style of coloration that the matter of their structural characters should be carefully looked into.
