Genus RHOPOTERPE Cabanis.
- (?) Myrmornis Hermann, Tab. aff. Anim., 1783, 188, 235. (Type, Fourmillier Buffon.)[1]
- Formicivorus Temminck, Cat. Syst. Cab. Orn., 1807, 92. (Type, by tautonomy, Formicivorus palikour Temminck = Turdus formicivorus Gmelin = Formicarius torquatus Boddaert.)
- (?) Urotomus Swainson, Zool. Journ., i, no. 3, Oct., 1824, 302, in text (nomen nudum); iii, no. 10, Sept., 1827, 166 (diagnosis, but no species named).
- Rhopoterpe[2] Cabanis, in Wiegmann's Archiv für Naturg., xiii, pt. i, 1847, 227, 337. (Type, Turdus formicivorus Gmelin = Formicarius torquatus Boddaert.)
Medium-sized Formicariidæ (length about 130-150 mm.) with planta tarsi broadly rounded (not ridged) behind; tarsus only one- fourth as long as wing; tail only two-fifths as long as wing, nearly even; bill as long as or longer than head (commissure longer than tarsus), with mesorhinium broad and flattened basally; coloration variegated, with a white or fulvous band across subbasal portion of remiges, and outer web of primaries crossed by an oblique subterminal band of buff or fulvous.
Bill as long as or longer than head, rather slender, rather broad and depressed basally, its width at loral antiæ greater than its depth at same point and equal to less than half the distance from nostril to tip of maxilla; culmen distinctly ridged (except extreme base, where broad and flattened), straight for most of its length, abruptly decurved terminally, the tip of maxilla moderately uncinate; tomia straight, slightly but distinctly notched subterminally; gonys slightly convex, rather prominent basally. Nostril exposed, separated rather widely from loral feathering, narrow, longitudinal (slit-like) overhung by a rather broad convex operculum. Rictal bristles obsolete, and feathers of chin, malar apex, loral antiæ, etc., short, without terminal setæ. Wing large, very concave beneath, rather pointed, the longest primaries projecting considerably beyond secondaries; sixth and seventh, or sixth, seventh, and eighth primaries longest, the tenth (outermost) three-fourths as long as the longest, the ninth longer than secondaries. Tail very short (only two-fifths as long as wing), nearly even, the rectrices rather narrow, soft, with subacuminate tip. Tarsus shorter than commissure, only one-fourth as long as wing,
rather stout, distinctly scutellate, the planta rather broadly rounded
- ↑ The "Fourmillier" of Buffon comprises thirteen species, belonging to eleven recognized genera and four families (Formicariidæ, Conopophagidæ, Pittidæ, and Troglodytidæ). So far as I can determine no one has ever fixed a type, and to do so by any other method than the "process of elimination" would involve an amount of time and labor which is not at my disposal. Under the circumstances, I prefer to retain the generic name Rhopoterpe, notwithstanding the unquestioned priority and pertinence of Formicivorus, leaving the final solution of the question to some one who has both the time and taste for such investigation.
- ↑ ? Gestrauch; ?, erquicken." (Cabanis.)
