BIRDS OF KORTH AXD MIDDLE AMERICA. 139 



nearly three-and-a-half) times as long as tarsus, distinctly (some- 

 times rather deeph^) emarginate. Tarsus short, one-sixth to a little 

 more than one-fifth as long as wing, the acrotarsium fused; middle 

 toe (without claw) three-fourths as long as tarsus, or a little more; 

 lateral toes unequal, the inner (without claw) reaching to subter- 

 minal articulation of middle toe, the outer sliglitly beyond; hallux 

 equal to inner toe or very slighth: shorter ; basal phalanx of middle 

 toe adherent for about half its length to outer toe, much less to 

 inner toe; claws moderate in size, rather strongh' curved, acute, 

 that of the hallux much shorter than its digit. 



Coloration. — Adult males rich blue (varj^ing from greenish to 

 purplish, with or without cliestnut on back; under parts light green- 

 ish blue with white al^domen and under tail-coverts, chestnut or 

 cinnamon with white abdomen and under tail-coverts, or blue with 

 cliestnut on breast; adult females much duller than males, grayish 

 or grayish l)rown largely replacing the blue, except on remiges and 

 rectrices; young conspicuously streaked above with pale huffy or 

 whitish, the breast, etc., whitish, squamated with grayish, brownish, 

 or dusky. 



Nidifi cation. — Nest in cavities of trees, stumps, or rocks, or about 

 houses, composed of dried grass-stems, etc., open above; eggs (4 to 7) 

 immaculate pale greenish blue (very rarely white). 



Range. — Temperate North America and highlands of Mexico, 

 Guatemala, and Honduras. (Three species.) 



This beautiful genus of Turdidge is most nearl}^ related to the 

 Himalayan genus Grandala Hodgson. Mr. Seebohm, indeed, con- 

 sidered" the two as congeneric; but on comparison I find them 

 exceedingly distinct, Grandala having the wing excessiveh' long, 

 almost Hirundine, the longest primaries exceeding the secondaries 

 by nearl}" half (more than two-fifths) the total length of the wing, 

 the tarsus and toes relatively longer, the bill much more slender, 

 the gon3's scarcely, if at all, longer than the mandibular rami, the 

 narrowly fusiform or elliptical nostril wholly exposed, no bristle-like 

 points to feathers of frontal antife, and the rictal and decumbent 

 post-nasal bristles much weaker. The adult male of Grandala is rich 

 dark purplish blue, with black wings and tail, thus only distantly 

 resembling the males of the species of Sialia: but the female is con- 

 spicuoush^ streaked, and has a Gocichline " wing-pattern," and there- 

 fore very different from tliose of the latter genus, thougli somewhat 

 resembling the young. 



a Cat. Birds, Brit. Mus., v, 1881, 327. 



