564 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



(/) Brepanorliynchus (not of Fischer and Reichenow, 1884) Dubois, Mem. Soc. 



Zool. France, vii, 1894, 400. (Type, D. schistaceus Dubois.) 

 (f) Spermophilopsifi Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, no. xxvii, May 31, 1895, 



p. xxxvii (Ibis, July, 1895, 384). (To replace Drepanorhynchus Dubois, 



preoccupied. ) 



Verv small u-ranivorous Fringillichv with stout, short bill with ciilmen 

 strongly carved, wings short and rounded, tail shorter than wing, 

 rounded, double-i'ounded, or somewhat graduated, and plumage plain 

 or pied (always plain and unstreaked in females and young). 



Size ver}" small (wing not more than 57.15 mm.). Bill short, 

 broad, and deep, with distinctl}- convex culmen, the exposed portion 

 of the latter about two-thirds as long as tarsus; maxilla nearly or quite 

 as deep as mandible, its tomium slightly concave throughout or nearl}^ 

 straight for most of its length, concave at extremities, never (i) 

 abruptly deflected ])asally ; mandibular tomium convex, nearly straight 

 in middle portion, indistinctly angulated l)asally; gonj^s straight or 

 ver}" slightly convex, shorter than width of mandible at base, the lat- 

 ter less than depth of 1)111 at base, which exceeds length of maxilla 

 from nostril. Wing about three and a quarter times as long as tarsus, 

 the primaries short, eightji to sixth longest (or ninth to seventh in 

 /S'. iHrntda)^ the ninth shorter than the fourth. Tail shorter than wing, 

 double-rounded {S. /nhiufa), graduated {S. torqueola)^ or slighth' 

 rounded (other species), the rectrices broad, less than half hidden bj" 

 the upper coverts. Tarsus about one and a half times as long as 

 exposed culmen, its scutella obvious, but not distinct; middle toe 

 with claw equal to or longer than tarsus; lateral claws reaching to base 

 of middle claw; hind claw varial)le, usually shorter, sometimes i^S. 

 minata) longer than its digit. 



Coloration. — Variable, l)ut never streaked (except sometimes the 

 back); sexes different. 



Range. — The whole of continental tropical America (southern Texas 

 to Paraguay, etc.). 



There is great diti'erence between the small-billed A; tninuta with 

 its slightl}' curved culmen, long, slender toes and claws, and long outer- 

 most primary, and S. liypoleuca^ representing the opposite extreme 

 from these characters; but other species are so variously intermediate 

 that I prefer, at present, not to make any subdivision of the genus. 



KEY TO THK SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF SPOROPHILA. 



u. Plumage parti-colored; or if plain the color uniform V)lack or with ujijter part8 

 gray. 

 h. Plumage of head and body without any black markings or areas, 

 c. Bill much larger and stouter, light-colored (pale fleshy brown or whitish); 

 rump gray, like rest of upper parts; under parts gray and white. {Hporo- 

 phila grisea.) 



