BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 691 



equal in length, the outer slightly but decidedly shorter; hallux 

 very short ; all the toes, together with their claws, very strong, and, 

 together with tarsus, rather densely feathered. 



Coloration. — Glossy blue-black, relieved by a small white spot on 

 each side of forehead, a white area covering chin, throat, upper 

 chest, and sides of neck (extending across hindneck as a narrow 

 band), and a white patch on eacli side of rump; secondaries and 

 distal ])rimaries grayish toward tip and margined terminally with 

 white. Sexes alike. 



Nidification. — Nest a long tu])ular structure, open at lower end 

 and attached at the more or less enlarged upper end to the under 

 surface of an overhanging rock or base of a branch of large tree, 

 composed of downy plant seeds, ]ilant down, bits of bark or lichens, 

 etc., glued together by the bird's salivary excretion. Eggs })laced 

 in a lateral pocket within the enlarged upper portion of the tube. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF PANYPTILA. 



a. Smaller (wing 116-120). (Nicaragua to Brazil and Ecquador.) 



Panyptila cayanensis (]>. 691). 

 a. Larger (wing 180-195). (Guatemala.) Panyptila sancti-hieronymi (p. 692). 



PANYPTILA CAYANENSIS (Gmelin). 



CAYENNE SWIFT 



Adults (sexes alil'e). — General color uniform A'elvety black with a 

 faint bluish gloss; inner webs of j)rimaries and termmal portion of 

 secondaries mostly, or m part, dark grayish brown, the former 

 narrowly edged, the latter termmally margmed with white; a patch 

 on each side of rump, a supralorcil spot or broad streak, chin, throat, 

 upper chest, and sides of neck wiiite, the latter confluent with a 

 band or collar of grayish white or ]iale brownish gray across hind- 

 neck; outer web of outermost pair of rectrices dull wliite or pale 

 grayish basally; bill black; iris dark brown; feet (where not feath- 

 ered) grayish brown or dusky, claws pale grayish brown or grayish 

 white. 



Adult male.— Length (sldns), 118-121 (119.5); wing, llS-120 (119); 

 tail, 55.5-60 (57.7); exposed culmen, 5-6.5 (5.7); tarsus, 8.5; mid- 

 dle toe, 6-7 (6.5). « 



Adult female.— Length (skins), 119-123 (121); wing, 116.5-117.5 

 (117); tail, 54-58 (56); exposed culmen, 5.5-6 (5.7); tarsus, 8; 

 middle toe, 5.5-6 (5.7).« 



Southeastern Nicaragua (Rio Esc(uidido) and southward through 

 eastern Costa Rica,'' eastern Panama (Rio Chagi-es) through Colom- 

 bia (Bogota; Antioquia), Venezuela, the Guianas, and Amazon 



" Two specimens. 



'* The species has not yet been recorded from Costa Rica, however, so far as 1 am 

 aware. 



