BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 213 



or dusky horn color (in dried skins); length (skin), 273; wing, 114; 

 tail, 136; tarsus, 32; middle toe, 22. "^ 



Young. — "A young bird (obtained July 23) in nestling plumage 

 is of a uniform dull blackish, with the white feathers beginning to 

 develop themselves on the breast and belly. ' ' (Sclater, Ibis, 1860, 29.) 



Highlands of Guatemala (Duenas; Godines; San Geronimo; Coban; 

 between Coban and Clusec; Zunil). 



Melanotis hypoleucus Hartlaub, Rev. ot Mag. Zool., iv, Oct., 1852, 460 (Guate- 

 mala; coll. Hamburg Mus.); Journ. fur Orn., 1853, 30.— Sclater and Salvin, 

 Ibis, 1859, 7 (Duefias, Guatemala; habits; song; descr. nest and eggs); Exotic 

 Orn., pt. i, 1868, 85, pi. 43.— Salvin and Sclater, Ibis, 1860, 29 (Coban and 

 Duenas, Guatemala; descr. young). — Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1859, 

 337 (monogr.); Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 7 (Dueiias).— Baird, Review Am. Birds, 

 1864, 57 (Coban). — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, i, 1879, 29 

 (Godines, San Geronimo, etc., Guatemala). — Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vi, 

 1881, 363. 



[Melanotis] hypoleucus Sclater and Salvin, Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, 3. — Sharpe, 

 Hand-list, iv, 1903, 108. 



[ilimus] hypolrucus Gray, Hand-list, i, 1869, 262, no. 3839. 



Genus MELANOPTILA Sclater. 



Melanopiila Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1857, 275. (Type, M. (jlahrirostns 

 Sclater.) ' 



Small Mimida- (length about 200 nun.) entirely glossy 1)lack in 

 color, and with broad rectrices. 



Bill much shorter than head, the exposed culmen shorter than 

 middle toe (without claw^ ; culmen nearly straight for most of its 

 length, the terminal portion gradually but decidedly decurved; 

 gonys slightly convex. Nostril oval or broadly wedge-shaped, 

 posteriorly nearly in contact with feathering of frontal anti^, over- 

 hung by narrow membrane. Rictal bristles minute, nearly obsolete. 

 Wing moderate (longest primaries exceeding longest secondaries by 

 about the distance from nostril to tip of maxilla), much rounded; 

 outermost (tenth) primary very large (more than half as long as the 

 longest), the ninth longer than third; seventh and sixth, or eighth 

 and seventh, primaries longest. Tail about as long as wing, decidedly 

 rounded (graduation about equal to distance from nostril to tip of 

 maxilla), the rectrices very broad (width equal to more than one- 

 fourth their length) , especially toward tip, which is broadly rounded. 

 Tarsus moderate in length (a little less than one-third rs long as 

 wing), rather slender, the acrotarsium rather distinctly scutellate 

 (the divisions sometimes indistinct on outer side); middle toe (with- 

 out claw) about two-thirds as long as tarsus; lateral toes unequal, the 

 inner (without claw) reaching to subterminal joint of middle toe. 



a One specimen, with broken bill. Five other adults, none of them with sex deter- 

 mined, measure as follows: Length (skins), 242-265 (251); wing, 106-113 (109.6); tail. 

 117-131 (126.6); exposed culmen, 23-25 (24); tarsus, 32-33.5 (32.4); middle toe, 21-23 

 (22.1). 



