Birds of North and Middle America, part V/Genus 5. Hypolophus Cabanis and Heine

by Robert Ridgway

 

Genus HYPOLOPHUS Cabanis and Heine.

Hypolophus^[1] Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, Aug., 1859, 16. (Type, Turdus cirrhatus Gmelin = Lanius canadensis Linnæus.)

Medium-sized Formicariidæ (length about 150 mm.) with strong, compressed, and conspicuously-hooked bill, crested pileum, tail four- fifths as long as wing, and exposed culmen longer than middle toe with claw; adult males with head, neck, chest, and median portion of breast and abdomen uniform black, sides and flanks white or light gray, wings and tail black varied with white; adult females brownish above (the wings varied with buff or whitish, pileum blackish or rufescent), the under parts plain buffy.

Bill nearly as long as head (exposed culmen longer than middle toe with claw), stout, slightly to much compressed, the maxilla conspicuously hooked and notched; width at frontal antiæ decidedly less than depth at same point (H. melanonotus) or slightly greater than depth (H. canadensis), equal to less than half the distance from nostril to tip of maxilla (H. melanonotus) or more than half (H. canadensis); culmen moderately (H. canadensis) to rather sharply ridged (H. melanonotus), nearly straight or very slightly convex for most of its length, strongly and rather abruptly decurved terminally, the tip of maxilla conspicuously uncinate; maxillary tomium nearly straight, distinctly notched and slightly toothed subterminally; mandible recurved and acute at tip, the tomium distinctly notched and toothed subterminally; gonys moderately convex, ascending terminally rather prominent basally. Nostril exposed, roundish or broadly oval, with an interior tubercle partly visible in upper posterior portion. Rictal bristles indistinct or obsolete, but loral feathers sometimes with shafts slightly elongated and thickened; feathers of chin, malar antiæ, and frontal antiæ with more or less distinct bristly tips.^[2] Wing moderate in length, rather pointed (primaries decidedly longer than secondaries); sixth and seventh primaries longest, tenth (outermost) more than three-fifths as long as the longest, ninth about equal to secondaries. Tail about four-fifths as long as wing, slightly (H. canadensis) to much (H. melanonotus) rounded, the rectrices (12) moderately broad, with rounded tip. Tarsus decidedly longer than exposed culmen, about one-third as long as wing, distinctly scutellate, the plantar scutella in two longitudinal series; middle toe, with claw, much shorter than tarsus; outer toe, without claw, reaching to beyond middle of subterminal phalanx of middle toe, the inner toe decidedly shorter; hallux about as long as inner toe but much stouter; basal phalanx of middle toe wholly united to outer toe, united for about half its length to inner toe; claws strongly curved, much compressed, that of the hallux decidedly shorter than its digit. Plumage full, lax, and blended, that of the rump much lengthened and fluffy; feathers of pileum elongated, especially on occiput, forming a distinct decumbent crest.

Coloration. — Adult males with head, neck, chest, and median portion of breast (usually of abdomen also) uniform black, the sides and flanks white or light gray; wings and tail black varied with white, the back brown or grayish, or black with a large concealed patch of white; adult females olive-brown to tawny-brown above, the wings dusky varied with buffy or whitish, the pileum blackish or rufescent; under parts plain buffy (more whitish on throat and abdomen).

Range. — Northern Colombia to Cayenne, southeastern Brazil, Bolivia, and northern Peru. (About seven species.)

HYPOLOPHUS CANADENSIS PULCHELLUS (Cabanis and Heine).

COLOMBIAN CRESTED ANTSHRIKE.

Adult male. — Pileum (including well-developed occipital crest) black, the forehead (sometimes crown also) streaked with white; back, scapulars, and rump plain cinnamon or russet, the scapulars and interscapulars with indistinct narrow mesial streaks of darker; outer row of scapulars dark brown, broadly edged with white; wing- coverts and tertials brownish black, all the former conspicuously tipped with white, the latter broadly edged with white or buffy white; secondaries and primaries dusky grayish brown (dark hair brown), the secondaries and inner primaries edged with light brown, the outer primaries edged with whitish; tail black, the rectrices broadly tipped with white, the exterior pair with outer web white (except basally); sides of head barred with black and white; chin, throat, and median portion of chest black, this sometimes continued, narrowly or brokenly, along the median line of breast, the feathers of chin and throat tipped with white; median under parts (except where occupied by the black gular-jugular area, white; lateral under parts pale gray anteriorly, passing into light cinnamon or clay color posteriorly; under wing-coverts and broad edgings to inner webs of remiges white or buffy white; maxilla brownish black, mandible sometimes more brownish (bluish gray in life ?) ; legs and feet horn color (in dried skins); wing, 69-75 (72); culmen, 18-20 (19); tarsus, 27-27.5 (27.2); middle toe, 14.5-16 (15.2).^[3]

Adult female. — Pileum deep cinnamon-rufous or rufous-chestnut; back, scapulars, and rump plain buffy cinnamon, the first deeper, inclining to russet; outer row of scapulars grayish brown, broadly edged with buff; wings and tail as in adult male, but the former with markings buff instead of white, and ground color of coverts less dark; sides of head, chin, and throat, pale buff or buffy white, the former barred and streaked with blackish; rest of under parts plain buff or clay color, slightly paler medially, especially on abdomen; maxilla horn color, mandible much paler; legs and feet horn color (in dried skins); wing, 69-73.5 (71.8); tail, 56-61 (58); culmen, 18-18.5 (18.2); tarsus, 26-26.5 (26.2); middle toe, 14-15 (14.5).^[4]

Northern Colombia (Rio Atrato; Rio Truando; Cartagena; Sabanilla; Barranquilla; Santa Marta, Bonda, and Cienega, Santa Marta; Valencia).

H[ypolophus] pulchellus Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, Aug., 1859, 16 (Cartagena, Colombia; coll. Heine Mus.).

Thamnophilus pulchellus Berlepsch, Ibis, Apr., 1881, 245 (crit.). — Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xv, 1890, 204 (Valencia, Santa Marta, and Barranquilla, Colombia). — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, ii, 1892, 201 (Rio Truando, Santa Marta, and Cartagena, n. Colombia). — Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. N. H., xiii, 1900, 161 (Bonda and Cienega, Santa Marta, Colombia).

[Thamnophilus] pulchellus Sharpe, Hand-list, iii, 1901, 15.

Thamnophilus, sp.?, Cassin, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philad., 1860, 189, no. 88 (Rio Truando).

Thamnophilus leucauchen (not of Sclater, 1855), Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 174, part (Santa Marta). — Salvin and Godman, Ibis, 1881, 171 (Santa Marta).

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1. "Von ὐπόλφος (subcristatus)." (Cabanis and Heine.)
2. These bristly points are much more strongly developed in H. melanonotus than in H. cirrhatus, as are also those of the loral region.
3. Two specimens.
4. Three specimens. (All the specimens examined are in bad condition, and some measurements can not be made from them.)