POLIOPTILA. 



•71 



slightest trace of the white near the bill — an occasional feather only 

 being tipped with this color. 



A female referred to this species is similar in general character, 

 but without the black head ; the bill rather larger. The whole 

 loral region to bill and the eyelids are white.* 



Smith- 



soniau 



No. 



32,556 

 30,555 

 30,554 

 34,101 



Collec- Sex 

 tor's and 

 No. , Age. 



248 



Locality. 



When 

 Collected. 



cf ■ Grenada, Nicar. 



cf W. coast Cent. Am. 



? Eealejo, 0. A. 



d 



Julvie. '63. 



Feb. 1S64. 



Keceived from 



Acad. Nat. Set 

 Capt. J. M. Dow. 



Collected by 



Polioptila superciliaris. 



PoUoptila sitperciliaris, Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lye. 1861, 304, 322 

 (Panama). 



First primary broad, and more than half the second, which is equal in 

 length to outer secondaries. Color above light ashy (paler than in Icuco- 

 gastra) ; secondaries margined with white. The top of the head and nape 

 are glossy black ; the sides, however, are white, excepting a short black line 

 from the eye backwards, running into the black of the nape. In other words, 

 a conspicuous white line from the bill over the eye (which is situated about 

 opposite its middle) and involving the whole loral region. The tail is glossy 

 black ; the outer tail feather is entirely white to the base ; the next is white, 

 except for the basal third ; the next white for rather less than the terminal 

 third ; the fourth feather has a narrow white tip. The shafts of the white 

 portions of the tail feathers are white. 



' Since the preceding article was written Mr. Salvin has kindly transmitted 

 to me for examination his type specimens of P. albiloris, from Guatemala, and 

 skins labelled P. buffoni, from La Union, Salvador. The former agree very 

 well with the first described specimen of " albiloris,'^ except that the bill is 

 not so large nor so much decurved at the end, the lores are more nearly 

 white — there being only a few blackish feathers in front of the eye (more 

 perhaps on one side than on the other) ; the white of the tail feathers extends a 

 little farther towards the base. No. 34,101, also received recently, agrees with 

 the type, except in having the larger bill. I can see very little difference 

 between Mr. Salvin's specimens of " albiloris" and of " buffoni," excepting ia 

 the color of the lores, and those described above, form two stages of inter- 

 mediate gradation. I am, therefore, not disinclined to the impression that 

 they all form one species. They all differ from P. buffoni, of Cayenne and 

 Bogota, as first described by Dr. Sclater, in having nearly the basal third of 

 the inner web of outer tail feather black, not white ; the basal half of the 

 inner web of the second, and the basal three-fourths of that of the third 

 feather black, instead of being white, almost to the base. 



The P. nigriceps differs from all these specimens in the longer tarsi and the 

 oblique markings on the tail. 



