Birds of North and Middle America, part V/Genus 1. Cymbilaimus Gray

by Robert Ridgway

 

Genus CYMBILAIMUS Gray.

Cymbilaimus Gray, List Gen. Birds, 1840, 36. (Type, Lanius lineatus Leach.)

Cymbilanius (emendation) Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1854 (pub. Apr. 5, 1855), 112.

Cymbolaemus (emendation) Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, Aug., 1859, 18, footnote, in text.

Medium-sized Formicariidæ (length about 160 mm.) with short, very stout, and strongly hooked bill, rounded and exposed nostrils, and finely barred plumage.

Bill about as long as head or a little shorter, very stout, strongly hooked, its width at frontal antiæ about equal to its depth at same point and about two-thirds the distance from nostril to tip of maxilla; exposed culmen shorter than tarsus, nearly straight to near the abruptly decurved and strongly uncinate tip of maxilla; maxillary tomium straight for most of its length, distinctly notched or concave subterminally; mandible falcate, recurved terminally; gonys strongly convex, ascending terminally, broadly rounded (not ridged) beneath, decidedly longer than unfeathered portion of mandibular rami; mandibular tomium distinctly toothed and notched subterminally. Nostril exposed, small, rounded or broadly oval, with an internal tubercle showing within upper posterior portion. Rictal bristles obvious but small; feathers of chin and anterior portion of malar region with bristly points or terminal setæ. Wing rather short, much rounded, the longest primaries but little longer than secondaries; sixth and seventh or fifth, sixth, and seventh, primaries longest, the tenth (outermost) about three-fifths as long as the longest. Tail about as long as wing, graduated for about one-third its length, the rectrices (12) rather broad and rounded terminally. Tarsus more than one-third as long as wing (about as long as bill from rictus to tip of maxilla), rather slender, distinctly scutellate, the plantar scutella in two parallel, contiguous rows; middle toe, with claw, much shorter than tarsus; outer toe (without claw) reaching to or beyond middle of subterminal phalanx of middle toe, the inner decidedly shorter, reaching (without claw) about to subterminal articulation of middle toe; hallux about as long as inner toe but much stouter; middle toe united to outer toe for whole of its basal phalanx, to inner toe for about half as much; claws moderate, strongly curved, that of hallux decidedly shorter than the digit. Plumage full, blended, moderately lax, that of the rump much developed; pileum with a full decumbent crest of broad, rounded feathers.

Coloration. — Adult male black, the upper parts (except pileum) narrowly, the under parts more broadly, barred with white; adult female with pileum chestnut, the rest of plumage barred with chestnut or brown and buffy or pale fulvous.

Range. — Nicaragua to Peru and lower Amazon Valley. (Monotypic.)

CYMBILAIMUS LINEATUS FASCIATUS Ridgway.

FASCIATED ANTSHHIKE.

Similar to C. l. lineatus^[1] but averaging decidedly larger; adult male with black bars on under parts averaging decidedly broader (especially on throat), the adult female and young with under parts much more strongly buffy and (usually, at least,) more heavily barred.

Adult male. — Pileum black, the forehead (sometimes crown and occiput also) narrowly barred with white; rest of upper parts black, narrowly and rather distantly barred with white, the outer webs of primaries and distal secondaries with small spots of white in transverse series; sides of head and neck and entire under parts sharply barred with black and white, the bars of the two colors about equal in width; maxilla black, mandible pale grayish or dull yellowish (pale bluish gray, with whitish tip, in life); iris carmine red; legs and feet grayish or horn color (light bluish gray in life); length (skins), 154-189 (165); wing, 70-78 (74); tail, 63-73.5 (67.3); culmen, 22-25 (23.4); tarsus, 24-25.5 (24.8); middle toe, 15-16 (15.5).^[2]

Adult female. — Forehead pale buff to tawny-buff, barred with black; rest of pileum cinnamon-rufous or rufous-chestnut, usually with some of the feathers more or less distinctly barred or margined terminally with black or dusky; rest of upper parts black, or sooty black, broadly and sharply barred with buff or tawny-buff, the bars on rectrices narrower, more or less curved, and more brownish; sides of head and neck and entire under parts pale buff to tawny- buff or nearly clay color,^[3] narrowly barred with black or sooty black, the bars usually narrower on chin, throat, and abdomen; bill, iris, legs, and feet as in adult male; length (skins), 149-175 (169); wing, 71-78 (74); tail, 65-72.5 (69.2); culmen, 21-25 (22.6); tarsus, 24-26 (25); middle toe, 14-16 (15.3).^[4]

Immature male. — Similar to the adult female (perhaps not always distinguishable) but under parts less conspicuously barred, the chin, throat, and abdomen nearly immaculate buff; iris reddish brown.^[5]

Nicaragua (Rio Escondido; Los Sábalos), Costa Rica (Angostura; Sipúrio; Jiménez; Rio Frio; Rio Súcio; Bonilla; Guayabo; Carrillo; Cuábre; El Hogár; San Carlos; La Cristina; La Vijágua), and Panamá (Santa Fé de Verágua; Mina de Chorcha; Calovévora; Calobre; Santiago de Verágua; Lion Hill; Panamá; Pintada, Coclé; Cascajál, Coclé), and southward through Colombia and Ecuadór to northern Peru.

Cymbilaniits lineatus (not Lanius Lineatus Leach) Lawrence, Ann. Lyc. N. Y., vii, 1862, 293 (Lion Hill, Panamá); ix, 1868, 107 (Angostura, Costa Rica). — Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1864, 355 (Lion Hill; crit.). — Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867, 144 (Santiago and Santa Fé de Verágua, Panamá); 1870, 194 (Mina de Chorcha, Calovevora, and Calobre, Panamá). — Frantzius, Journ. für Orn., 1869, 305 (Costa Rica). — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr. Am., Aves, ii, 1892, 194, part (excl. South Am. localities and references).

(?) Cymbilanius lineatus Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1854, 112 (Quijos, Ecuador); 1858, 65 (e. Ecuadór), 206, part (monogr.). — Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1866, 566 (Rio Ucayali, e. Peru); 1873, 272 (Nauta and Pebas, e. Peru); 1879, 524 (Remédios and Nechi, Antioquía, Colombia). — Taczanowski, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1874, 529 (Monterico, centr. Peru); Orn. du Pérou, ii 1884, 1. — Allen, Bull. Am. Mus., ii, 1889, 74 (Rio Napo, e. Ecuadór). — Hartert, Novit. Zool., v, 1898, 492 (Cachavi, n. w. Ecuadór). — Salvadori and Festa, Boll. Mus. Zool., etc., Torino, xv, no. 362, 1899, 27 (Valle del Rio Santiago, e. Ecuadór). — Berlepsch and Stolzmann, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1902, 59 (Monterico, Peru).

[Cymbilanius] lineatus Sclater and Salvin, Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, 69, part. — Sharpe, Hand-list, iii, 1901, 9, part.

Cymbilanius lineatus fasciatus Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vi, no. 26, April 11, 1884, 404 (Los Sábalos, Nicaragua; coll. U. S. Nat. Mus.), 415 (Rio Súcio, Costa Rica). — Zeledón, An. Mus. Nac. Costa Rica, 1887, 114 (Jiménez, Costa Rica; Panamá).— Richmond, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xvi, 1893, 498, 499 (Rio Escondido, Nicaragua; crit.). — Bangs, Proc. New Engl. Zool. Club, ii, 1900, 24 (Loma del León, Panamá). — Carriker, Ann. Carnegie Mus., vi, 1910, 600 (Caribbean lowlands and foothills Costa Rica; habits). — Ferry, Pub. 146, Field Mus. N. H., orn. ser., i, no. 6, 1910, 271 (Guayabo, Costa Rica).

Cymbilanius lineatus (fasciatus) Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vi, 1883, 415 (Rio Súcio, Costa Rica).

(?) Thamnophilus nigricristatus (not of Lawrence) Boucard, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1878, 60 (San Carlos, Costa Rica).

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1. Lanius lineatus Leach, Zool. Misc., i, 1815, 20, pl. 6 (Guiana). — Thamnophilus lineatus Vieillot, Nouv. Dict. d'Hist. Nat., iii, 1816, 316. —C[ymbilaimus] lineatus Gray, List Gen. Birds, 1841, 49. — Cymbilanius lineatus Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc., Lond., 1854, 112; Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xv, 1890, 178, part. — Cymbilanius lineatus lineatus Hellmayr, Novit. Zool., xiv, 1907, 60, 369. (Tropical South America in general, except Pacific Coast district south to Ecuadór).
2. Twenty specimens.
3. Sometimes the color approaches huffy white on sides of head, chin, and throat.
4. Twenty specimens.

   Locality.	Wing.	Tail.	Culmen.	Tarsus.	Middle toe.
   males.
   Three adult males from Nicaragua	76.2	68.7	23.7	25	15.5
   Ten adult males from Costa Rica	74.4	67.9	23.8	24.8	15.7
   Two adult males (C. l. lineatus) from Venezuela	74	68	21.5	25.2	15
   One adult male (C. l. lineatus) from British Guiana	75	71	24.5	25	15.5
   Six adult males (C. l. lineatus) from Lower Amazon	73.2	72.2	22.8	25.1	15.2
   females.
   74.6	69.6	23.2	25.9	15.7
   Ten adult females from Costa Rica	74.6	70	22.1	24.7	15.3
   Six adult females from Panamá	72.6	67.6	23.1	24.7	15
   Two adult females (C. l. lineatus) from Venezuela	74.5	67.5	22.2	24	15.2
   Two adult females (C. l. lineatus) from Cayenne	74	71.2	22.7	24.2	15.5
   One adult female (C. l. lineatus) from Lower Amazon	75.5	71.5	23.5	27	15.5

   The specimen from Ecuadór agrees much better in coloration with examples from Panamá than with true C. lineatus.

5. Heyde, manuscript.