SPERMOPHILA.—VOLATINIA. 357 
Mr. Whitely has recently found it in the vicinity of Mount Roraima at an elevation of 
3500 feet. 
[Two birds, probably belonging to this genus, have been described from specimens of 
Mexican origin, but which we have been unable to recognize :— 
1. SPOROPHILA OTHELLO, Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 498, ex Mexico. A black species 
with white alar speculum, very probably either Oryzoborus funereus or Spermophila 
corvina. 
2. SPERMOPHILA PARVA, Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Ac. Sc. ii. p. 382, ex Tehuantepec city 
(Sumichrast). The type is a female or young bird, impossible to recognize from the 
description. | 
VOLATINIA. 
Volatinia, Reichenbach, Av. Syst. t. 79 (1850). 
Volatinia may readily be distinguished from Spermophila by the form of the nostrils, 
which are exposed and situated in a membrane at the extremity of the nasal fossa; 
their form is somewhat elongated. In Spermophila the nostril is not so much exposed 
and rounder. The bill in Volatinia is longer, sharper, and more compressed, the 
culmen straighter and with a sharper ridge, the tomia is more gradually curved. 
The wing is short and much rounded, the primaries not much exceeding the 
secondaries in length; third and fourth = and longest, slightly > second and fifth, 
first nearly = secondaries. Tail rather long and slightly rounded. Tarsus = middle 
toe and claw. 
The general colour of the plumage is steel-blue black, the female being dusky and 
striped on the chest. 
Volatinia, in one or other of its forms, is spread over the whole of Tropical America 
from Brazil to Mexico, but is absent from the Antilles. 
1. Volatinia splendens. 
Fringilla splendens, Vieill. N. Dict. d’Hist. N. xii. p. 173}. 
Volatinia jacarina, Scl. P. Z. 8. 1859, p. 365°; 1864, p. 174°; Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p.17*; P.Z.S. 
1864, p. 352° ; 1870, p. 836° ; Cab. J. f. Orn. 1861, p.27; Lawr. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. vii. p. 332°; 
vill. p. 177°; ix. pp. 103”, 201"; Mem. Bost. Soc. N.H. ii. p. 276”; Bull. U.S. Nat. 
Mus. no. 4, p. 20"; Sumichrast, Mus. Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p. 552"; Frantz. J. f. Orn. 
1869, p. 301; Salv. P. Z. S. 1870, p. 190:°; Cat. Strick]. Col. p. 2231"; Wyatt, Ibis, 1871, 
p. 8328"; Salv. & Godm. Ibis, 1879, p. 200”; Boucard, P. Z.S. 1883, p. 444; Nutt. & 
Ridgw. Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. vi. p. 383”. 
Volatinia jacarina splendens, Berlepsch, J. f. Orn. 1884, p- 295”. 
Nitente-ceeruleo-nigra unicolor ; alis caudaque nigris, plumis prope humeros albis; rostro nigricante, mandibulee 
