626 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



KEY TO THE SUBSPECIES OF VOLATIXIA. 



a. General color glossy blue-black (adult males). 



b. Under wing-coverts and axillars (sometimes part of inner webs of some of the 

 remiges also) white or largely white. (Tropical South America, except 

 coast districts from Guiana and western Ecuador northward. ) 



Volatinia jacarini jacarini, adult male (extralimital).^ 

 hb. Under wing-coverts and axillars mostly or entirely black. (Southern Mexico 

 to Guiana and western Ecuador. ) 



Volatinia jacarini splendens, adult male (p. 526) 

 oa. Upper parts brown, under parts mainly buffy or whitish (females and immature 

 males). 

 b. Feathers of under parts black basally, buffy at tips. 

 c. Under wing-coverts, etc., mostly white. 



Volatinia jacarini jacarini, immature male. 

 cc. Under wing-coverts, etc., mostly black. 



Volatinia jacarini splendens, immature male. 

 hb. Feathers of chest and sides streaked mesially with dusky grayish brown. 



Volatinia jacarini jacarini, adult female and young. 

 Volatinia jacarini splendens, adult female and young.^ 



VOLATINIA JACARINI SPLENDENS (Vieillot). 

 BLTJE-BLACK GRASSQXJIT. 



Adult male. — Gloss}' blue-black or dark steel blue, slightly more 

 purplish on head and neck, duller on posterior under parts; remiges 

 an^ rectrices dead black, the tertials (the rectrices also, in fresh plum- 

 age) edged with steel bluish; under wing-coverts and axillars also 

 glossy blue-black; a concealed white patch immediately above and 

 anterior to junction of wing with body: l)ill, legs, and feet black (the 

 former with mandible sometimes grayish or horn colored); iris brown; 

 length (skins), 87.63-109.47 (IOU.08); wing, 45.72-50.80(48.51); tail, 

 37.59-44.70 (40.89); exposed culmen, 9.14-10.67 (9.91); depth of bill 

 at base, 6.60-7.37 (6.86); tarsus, 14.22-16.00 (15.75); middle toe, 

 10.16-11.43 (10.67).'' 



Immature male. — Above dull brown (intermediate between raw 

 umber and bister), the scapulars and upper tail-coverts gloss v blue- 

 black beneath the surface; wings and tail black, the larger wing-coverts 

 and tertials margined with tawny brown; under parts pale brownish, 

 hujffy, or brownish white, the basal (partly exposed) portion of the 

 feathers black; maxilla dark brownish, mandible much paler. (^lany 

 specimens are variously intermediate between this plumage and the 

 fuU}^ adult bird, as described above, according to age or season.) 



'^\_Tanagra'\ jacarini Linntieus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, i, 1766, 314. — V.loIatima'\ jacarina 

 Cabanis, Mus. Hein., i, June, 1851, 147, part. — Volatinia jacarini Sharpe, Cat. Birds 

 Brit. Mus., xii, 1888, 152, part. 



'^ I am unable to tabulate any differences between females and young of the two 

 forms. Only one adult female of T'. j. jacarini has been examined, and no young 

 birds. So far as I can see the female is not obviously different from that of T'. j. 

 splendens, both having the under wing-coverts and axillars white or pale buffy. 



* Twenty-nine specimens. 



