- X Furnariinæ Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 22 (includes Rhodinocichla!). — Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 146.
- =Fumariidæ Stejneger, Stand. Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 479, in text.
- < Synallaxinx Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 26. — Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 149. — Sundevall, Met. Nat. Av. Disp. Tent., ii, 1872, 55 (English translation, 1889, 122).
The Furnariidæ are closely related to the Dendrocolaptidæ and have usually been included in the same family, as Subfamilies Furnariinæ, Synallaxinæ, Philydorinæ, and Sclerurinæ,[1] three Furnariine genera being even referred to the "Subfamily Dendrocolaptinæ.[2] Prof. Garrod and Dr. Stejneger, however, have shown[3] that in their schizorhinal, instead of holorhinal, skull and dissimilar feet they differ sufficiently to warrant their recognition as a distinct family.
Although distributed throughout the continental portions of the Neotropical Region, the Furnariidæ are most developed in the Patagonian and South-Brazilian Subregions, to which many of the genera, among them the most typical ones, are peculiar, comparatively few of them passing to the northward of the Isthmus of Panama, only 25 of the more than 278 species and 10 of the 37 genera[4] belonging to the Central American district.
While some of the genera resemble Dendrocolaptine forms in external appearance, and presumably in habits also, the majority of the Furnariidæ are more terrestrial; some of them eminently so, and strongly recalling in their appearance and general habits the Larks (Alaudidæ) and Stone-chats. Many of them inhabit reedy marshes, and bear a superficial likeness to the marsh-wrens (genera Telmatodytes and Cistothorus), while certain small long-tailed short-billed forms, as Leptasthenura, recall the Parine genus Psaltriparus, others again resembling Creepers (Certhiidæ).
Many of the species, particularly those belonging to the so-called Subfamily Furnariinæ, are remarkable for the unusual character of their nests, which, in some cases, consist of massive oven-like structures built of mud or clay, in others immense heaps of twigs, whence the builders have received the name of "fagot-gatherers" from the human inhabitants of the country.
What has been said concerning the unsatisfactory classification of the Formicariidæ[5] and my efforts to devise a better one applies as well to the present group.
- ↑ See Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, vol. xv., pp. xi-xiii, 2-126. (By Philip Lutley Sclater.)
- ↑ Genera Margarornis, Premnoplex, and Pygarrhicus.
- ↑ See Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1877, pp. 449-452, and Stejneger, Standard Natural History, vol. iv. Birds, 1885, pp. 478, 481.
- ↑ As enumerated in Sharpe's Hand-list of the Genera and Species of Birds, vol. iii, 1901, pp. 45-74, under Dendrocolaptidæ.
- ↑ See p. 9.
