670 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



conspicuous crest or neck-tufts or ruffs (sometimes both), and with 

 outer web of ninth primary abruptly narrowed (almost obliterated) 

 terminally. 



Bill shorter than head, stout, nearly terete (broad and depressed 

 basally in L. adordbilis) ; culmen rounded terminally, narrowly 

 ridged (for a greater or less distance) basally; tomia smooth; man- 

 dible with the usual lateral median groove or sulcus indistinct 

 or obsolete. Nasal operculum narrow, almost rudimentary, hidden 

 by appressed frontal feathering, which anteriorly extends nearly to 

 (sometimes considerably beyond) anterior end of nostrils, forming 

 a single broadly rounded or very faintly emarginate antia on base of 

 culmen. Tarsus naked; lateral toes about equal in length, slightly 

 but distinctly shorter than middle toe. Wing more than three to 

 about four times as long as exposed culmen, the outermost (tenth) 

 primary longest or equal to ninth, narrow but not acuminate, the 

 ninth primary in adult males with outer web abruptly excised or 

 narrowed (almost obliterated) for about terminal third or fourth. 

 Tail in adult male about three-fifths to a little more than two-thirds 

 as long as wing, double-rounded, the outermost rectrices sometimes 

 longer, sometimes shorter, than middle pair — in females and young 

 about half as long as wing, rounded, the rectrices broadly rounded 

 at tip in both sexes. 



Coloration. — Back, etc., metallic green, bronze-green, or bronze; a 

 more or less distinct bar of white or buffy across rump. Adult males 

 extremely variable in coloration of head, neck, and under parts but 

 always with the chin and throat brilliant metallic green; the head 

 often conspicuously crested, and frequently with a conspicuous tuft 

 of elongated, usually spangled or otherwise brilliantly colored feathers 

 springing from the auricular region; adult females without crest or 

 tufts, the chin and throat whitish or buffy, sometimes spotted or 

 flecked with dusky or bronzy. 



Range. — Southern Mexico to Cayenne, southern Brazil, Bolivia, 

 and Peru. (About ten species.) 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF LOPHORNTS. 



a. Head conspicuously crested or tufted; rectrices (except middle pair) wholly 



cinnamon-rufous or merely edged with dusky. {Adult males.) 



b. No elongated auricular tuft, nor white patch on crown; forehead not coppery; 



no distinct white patch on chest. 



c. Whole pileum, including bushy crest, cinnamon-rufous; whole throat metallic 



green; imder parts of body not spotted. (Central Costa Rica to northern 



Colombia.) Lophornis delattrei, adult male (p. 671). 



cc. Pileum dark metallic green, the slender crest blackish; lower throat velvety 

 black; under parts of body spotted with bronze on a white ground. 

 (Southeastern Mexico to Costa Rica.) 



Lophornis helense, adult male (p. 673). 



