68 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



cc. Middle and greater wing-coverts not distinctly, if at all, tipped with buffp. 

 d. Pileum and hindneck dull slate-grayish; back, etc., more grayish olive; under 

 parts paler buffy, the tliroat and flanks nearly white. 



Myrmopagis melsena, adult female, (p. 68). 



dd. Pileum and hindneck brown; back, etc., more brownish olive; under parts 



deeper (more ochraceous) buffy, the throat orhraceous-buff, the flanks 



buffy olive Myrmopagis schisticolor, adult female (p. 71). 



MYRMOPAGIS MEL.ffiNA (Sclater). 



BLACK ANTWREN. 



Adult male. — Above plain black or slate-black, the wing-coverts 

 spotted or dotted with white (a roundish or siibtriangular spot at tip 

 of each feather), outer web of exterior row of scapulars broadly edged 

 with white, and a large white patch covering inner-anterior portion 

 of lesser wing-covert area; "■ lateral rectrices (sometimes all but middle 

 pair) tipped with white; under wing-coverts, broad edgings to inner 

 web of remiges, and an extensive patch of soft elongated feathers 

 covering sides and flanks, white; rest of under parts uniform black, 

 or slate-black; bill black, the mandible sometimes more plumbeous; 

 iris brown; legs and feet horn color (bluish gray or gra3dsh blue in 

 life); length (skins), 78-99 (91); wing, 50-56 (52.4); tail, 29.5-37 

 (32.4); culmen, 13-14.5 (13.6); tarsus, 15-17 (15.7); middle toe, 

 8.5-10 (9).^* 



Immature male. — Similar to the adult male, but the black of upper 

 parts replaced by blackish slate, that of the under parts by slate 

 color, clouded, more or less extensively, with black, the chin and 

 upper throat sometimes mostly pale gray or grayish white; younger 

 individuals with terminal spots of greater wing-coverts buffy instead 

 of white. 



Adult female. — Pileum and hindneck dark mouse gray or dull slate 

 color, passing into olive on back and scapulars, tliis mto brownish 

 olive or olive-brown on rump and upper tail-coverts; tail dusky 

 brown, the rectrices edged \vith russet-brown or sepia; general color 

 of wings deep olive or olive-brown, the greater wing-coverts and 

 secondaries more russet-brown on edges, the primaries edged with 

 lighter and more buffy olive; middle and greater wing-coverts indis- 

 tinctly tipped with russet-brown; auricular, suborbital, and malar 

 regions, chin, and throat dull buffy whitish, the first suffused with 

 grayish and with narrow shaft-streaks of wliitish; rest of under parts, 

 including under wing-coverts and broad edgmgs to inner webs of 

 remiges, buff (more or less deep); maxilla blackish brown with paler 

 tomia, mandible dull yellowish (bluish gray or grayish blue in life); 

 iris brown; legs and feet horn color (bluish gray or grayish blue in 



o Usually there are also narrow and indistinct whitish edgings to some of the remiges. 

 & Fifteen specimens. 



