BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 545 



blance to the Galapag-oan genus Geospha^ being- intermediate in size 

 between G. fortis and G. fuUglnosa^ and having the tarsus the same 

 length as in the former; but the tail is proportionally much longer, 

 and the wing much more rounded than in Geosj)iso, in which the ninth 

 primary is equal to the fifth, or but little shorter. The mandible is 

 much broader at the base, proportionally, than in G. fortis^ its basal 

 width considerably exceeding the leng-th of the gon^'s instead of being 

 about the same; the culmen is quite straight, instead of distinctly 

 convex, and the rami of the mandible are much narrower. So close 

 is the general resemblance, however, that the whitish legs and feet 

 and wholly black under tail-coverts of 2Ielanospiza constitute its most 

 obvious differential characters. 



MELANOSPIZA RICHARDSONI (Cory). 



RICHARDSON'S GRASSSTXIT. _ 



Adult male. — Uniform deep black, including under wing-coverts and 

 tail-coverts; under surface of primaries slate color; bill black; legs and 

 feet pale buffy brownish; length (skin), 116.8tl:-129.54 (123.19); wing, 

 69.85-Y1.12 (70.36); tail, 48.26-48.77 (48.51); exposed culmen, 13.97; 

 depth of bill at base, 10.92; tarsus, 20.83; middle toe, 14.73.' 



(Adult female and young unknown.) 



Island of Santa Lucia, Lesser Antilles. 



Loxigilla richardsoni Cory, Auk, iii, July, 1886, 382 (mountains of Santa Lucia, 

 Lesser Antilles; coll. C. B. Cory); v, 1888, 158; Ibis, 1886, 472, 475; Birds 

 W. L, 1889, 290. 



Geospiza richcmhoni Cory, Cat. W. I. Birds, 1892, 16, 112, 133, 150. 



Euetheia richardsoni Eidgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xii, 1890, 129 (Santa 

 Lucia) . 



Genus LOXIPASSER Bryant. 



Loxipasser Bryant, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H., x, 1866, 254. (Type, Spermophila 

 anoxantlm Gosse. ) 



Small rringillida3 with short thick bill, culmen strongly curved, 

 maxilla narrow and with deeply incised and strongly angulated 

 tomium; tail rather short (about two-thirds as long as the rather long, 

 rounded wing), even: tarsus rather long (about two-thirds as long as 

 tail); adult male with head, neck, and chest black, under tail-coverts 

 rufous, upper parts olive-green, becoming yellow on lesser wing- 

 coverts. 



Bill small (length from nostril about one-third length of tarsus), 

 with culmen strongly convex; maxilla very narrow, with tomium 

 ascending in a nearly straight line almost parallel with the culmen to 

 directly beneath the nostril, where abruptly deflected at an angle of 



^ Two specimens, one of them not measured for bill and feet. 

 17024—01 35 



