362 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus JACAMEROPS Oken. 



Jacamerops "■ Oken, Isis, i, 1817, 1148. (Type, Les Jacamerops CuYieT^Alcedo 



grandis Gmelin=J^. aurea Miiller.) 

 Lamprotila Swainson, Classif. Birds, ii, 1837, 336. (Type, L. platyrhyncha 



Swainson= J-ZcecZo aurea Miiller.) 

 Lamproptila (emendation) Agassiz, Nomencl. Zool., Aves (addenda), 1846, 12. 



— Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., iv, heft 1, 1863, 227. 



Large four-toed Galbiilidae Gength about 260-297 mm.) with the 

 bill broad and depressed for basal two-thirds or more and distinctly 

 decurved. 



Bill longer than head (culmen decidedly less than half as long as 

 wing), distinctly (though not strongly) decurved, compressed ter- 

 minally only, its width at nostrils equal to its depth at same point; 

 culmen strongly ridged; gonys faintly concave, shghtly prominent 

 basally, distinctly ridged; mandibular rami concave, the lower 

 edge strongly ridged; commissure shghtly arched, the tomia 

 smooth, not deflected basally. Nostrils exposed. A few slender, 

 rather short, antrorse bristles projected forward over nostrils, the 

 rictus, malar apex, and chin with similar but much smaller 

 bristles; orbital region partly naked, especially a triangular space 

 in front of eye. Wing moderate, rather pointed, the longest pri- 

 maries decidedly longer than longest secondaries; seventh primary 

 longest, the sixth and eighth shghtly shorter and about equal, the 

 ninth shorter than fifth, the tenth (outermost) a little more than hah 

 as long as ninth. Tail much longer than wing, graduated, the lateral 

 (developed) pair of rectrices about three-fourths as long as middle 

 pair, all the rectrices rather broad, not tapering terminally, the tip 

 broadly rounded. Tarsus shghtly longer than middle toe without 

 claw, feathered for upper half or more. 



Coloration. — Above brilhantly metallic golden green, the back more 

 coppery (sometimes coppery red), the tail more bluish; under parts 

 mostly plain tawny or rufous-tawny, the adult male with a patch of 

 white on lower throat. 



Range. — Costa Rica to Amazon Valley. (Monotypic.) 



JACAMEROPS AUREA (MUller). 



GREAT JACAMAR. 



Adult male. — Forehead and crown bright metallic green (the 

 former sometimes more bluish) passing into more golden green on 

 nape, this into rich metalhc golden or reddish bronze on back and 

 scapulars (especially the interscapular region), the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts bright golden green, sometimes tinged or intermixed with 

 golden or reddish bronze; wing-coverts and secondaries bright 

 metalhc golden green; primaries black, the shorter (proximal) ones 

 more or less tinged or washed with metallic green toward edge of 

 outer webs, the primary coverts dark metallic green ; middle pair of 



o From Jacamar, a native name; +w<p, face (or Jaca[mar]-{-merops). (Richmond.) 



