BIKDS OF NOETH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 139 



Medium-sized to rather large Picidaes (wing about 109-170 mm.) 

 with nostrils wholly exposed; no antrorse bristly feathers near 

 nostril, on malar apex, nor on chin; bill rather stout with chisel- 

 shaped tip and distinct supranasal ridge, and with upper parts 

 mostly chestnut or cinnamon-rufous (with or without black bars), 

 or barred with black and buff-yellow or brown and yellowish; usually 

 conspicuously crested, the pileum always without red; "• adult males 

 with a broad malar patch of red. 



Bill ^ shorter than head, stout, broad and rather depressed at 

 base (width at anterior end of nostrils decidedly greater than its 

 depth at same point), its tip distinctly though narrowly chisel- 

 shaped; culmen distinctly ridged, faintly to rather strongly convex 

 (nearly straight in C. loricatus); gonys slightly to decidedly longer 

 than mandibular rami, obviously (usually distinctly) ridged, straight 

 or faintly concave terminally, more or less convex and prominent 

 basally; supranasal ridge very distinct, much nearer to culmen than 

 to tomium, extending for at least basal half of maxilla. Nostril 

 wholly exposed, small, roundish or oval, sometimes nearer to culmen 

 than to tomium, sometimes the reverse. Prefrontal feathers short, 

 erect, without bristle-like tips, the feathers of malar apex and chin 

 also short and without bristly tips. Orbital region naked, including 

 margin or edge of eyelids, except posterior portion of lower lid. 

 Wing moderate, rounded; longest primaries exceeding secondaries 

 by one-seventh to one-fourth (C. loricatus) the length of wing; fifth 

 and sixth, sixth, or sixth and seventh primaries longest, the ninth 

 sometimes shorter than first (C. Jlavescens, C. lugubrisf^) , interme- 

 diate between first and second {C. castaneus), or intermediate between 

 second and third {C. loricatus), the tenth (outermost) slightly less 

 than half {C. castaneus, 0. loricatus) as long as ninth to decidedly 

 more than half as long {C. jlavescens, C. luguhrisf) . Tail about 

 three-fifths as long as wing to nearly half as long, the middle rectrices 

 gradually narrowing terminally and (except in C castaneus and 

 C. loricatus) with shafts somewhat expanded subterminally. Tarsus 

 nearly as long as outer hind toe with claw (C. castaneus, C. loricatus, 



a Sometimes, in adult males, there are touches of red on the forehead or super- 

 ciliary region, but there is never a definite area of this color, and the crest is invariably 

 buff-yellow, olive-buff, cinnamon-rufous, or some analogous color. 



6 C. rufus (Gmelin) is excluded from the species upon which this generic descrip- 

 tion is based, as I am by no means satisfied that it belongs here. The single speci- 

 men examined has the bill very different from that of any species of Celeus proper, 

 being relatively smaller and more pointed (not at all wedge-shaped at tip), the culmen 

 rounded (instead of distinctly ridged) and distinctly convex or arched in middle 

 portion, the nasal fosste relatively much larger and less feathered, and the nostril 

 apparently different. 



c In the specimen examined of C. luguhris the ninth primary is not fully grown. 

 The specimen of C. jumana examined in this connection also has the primaries 

 imperfect. 



