BIEDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 497 



Dendroica Gray, List Gen. Bird?, App., 1842, 8. (Type, Motacilla coronata Lin- 

 naeus.) 



Dendroeca (emendation) Agassiz, Nomencl. Zoolog. Index Univ., 1846, 119. 



Perissoglossa Baird, Review Am. Birds, Apr., 1866, 180. (Type, Motacilla tigrina 

 Gmelin.) 

 Small or nicdiuin-sized arboreal or subarboreal Mniotiltids, with 

 the bill slender-conoidal, its basal width not greater than its basal 

 depth, gradually tapering toward the tip, the tip of maxilla percepti- 

 bly decurved, the maxillary tomium with obvious notch; rictal bristles 

 obvious, but not strongly developed; the tail more than two and a half 

 times as long as tarsus, and inner webs of lateral retrices partly white 

 or yellow. 



Bill shorter than head (usually much shorter), slender-conoidal, 

 tapering gradually to the tip; tip not acute or else {D. tigruui) the 

 maxilla appreciably decurved terminally and with sul)terminal tomial 

 notch (the latter always present). No.stril longitudinal, linear, nar- 

 rowly oval or su])cuneate, overhung by broad membraneous opercu- 

 lum. Rictal bristles oljvious, but never very distinct. Wing moderate 

 or rather long, rather pointed (four outermost primaries abruptly 

 longest, the ninth always longer than fifth, frequently longer than 

 fourth, sometimes longest); or, in the distinctively Antillean types,' 

 rounded, with the ninth primary shorter than the fifth, sometimes 

 shorter than fourth; wing-tip usually equal to or longer than tarsus 

 (decidedly shorter in B. inaculosa, D. dkcolor, and D. 2)ahiuirurn). 

 Tail about equal to distance from liend of wing to tips of secondaries 

 (sometimes a little longer or shorter), emarginate, even, double- 

 rounded or slightly rounded. Tarsus one-fourth' to one-third' as 

 long as wing, its scutella indistinct, often obsolete or fused on outer 

 side; middle toe, with claw, shorter than tarsus (nearly as long in D. 

 dommica); basal phalanx of middle toe united for more than half 

 (sometimes nearly the whole) its length to outer toe, for at least half 

 its length to inner toe. 



Ooloratio)i.—ExtYeme\y variable, but inner webs of lateral rectrices 

 always with more or less of white or yellow. 



Nidification. — Mostly arboreal, sometimes terrestrial or subterres- 



trial. 



^^^„^^.._Whole of North and Middle America, and more northern 

 and western portions of South America; Galapagos Islands. (Many 

 species.) 



There is much variation in details of form among the many species 

 of this beautiful genus, and their habits vary correspondingly. Some 



^B. plumbea, D. pharetra, D. adelaidss, and D. delicata. 

 ^In D. coronata, D. vigorsii, and D. castanea. 



nn D. plumbea, D. adelaidie, and D. delicata; nearly one-third as long in D. pal- 

 marum, D. discolor, and I), maculosa. 

 3654— VOL 2—01 32 



