BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 471 



Bill about as long as head, strongl}^ decurved, very broad and de- 

 pressed (width at nostrils nearly equal to half the distance from 

 nostril to tip of maxiUa); culmen conspicuously carinate, the sides 

 of maxilla immediately below the flattened ridge deeply hollowed out 

 or concave; gonys less than twice as long as mandibular rami, very 

 broadly rounded, but with faint indication of a narrow median 

 ridge; tomia very finely serrate, the serrations obsolete only at 

 extreme ends of tomia. Nostril rather small, roundish, in anterior 

 end of nasal fossa, partly concealed by latero-frontal feathering. No 

 prefrontal (postnasal) bristles; rictal bristles obvious, but rather 

 weak, those of malar apex larger and stronger, the feathers of 

 chin with very minute bristly recurved points. Head completely 

 feathered, the auricular feathers elongated, rather stiff, forming a 

 conspicuous tuft; a tuft of elongated feathers on middle of lower 

 foreneck. Wing rather short and rounded, the longest primaries 

 exceeding longest secondaries by not more than length of tarsus; 

 fifth, sixth, and seventh primaries longest, the eighth longer than 

 fourth, the ninth equal to second or third, the tenth (outermost) 

 decidedly less to sUghtly more than two-thirds as long as ninth. Tail 

 about one-third longer than wing, excessively graduated, the middle 

 pair of rectrices nearly one-third longer than next pair, with webs 

 contracted subterminally or else (usually) completely denuded for 

 a distance equal to or greater than length of the racquet-shaped tip; 

 rectrices 10, the outer pair nearly to quite two-thirds as long as next 

 pair. Tarsus shorter than middle toe with claw. 



Coloration. — General color plain green, more bluish on tail and pri- 

 maries; auricular tuft (together with orbital and loral regions) and 

 tuft on lower foreneck black; head, neck, and chest otherwise plain 

 tawny, or else superciliary region blue. 



Range. — Southern Mexico (State of Vera Cruz) to upper Amazon 

 Valley. (Two species.) 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OP ELECTRON. 



n. Pileum and Mndneck dull cinnamon-rufous or russet-tawny, the foreneck, chest, 

 and breast similar but rather lighter. {Electron platyrhynchus .) 

 b. Color of pileum, etc., darker, more castaneous; chin indistinctly dull greenish. 

 (Upper Amazon Valley, in Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador.) 



Electron platyrhynchus platyrh5aichus (extralimital).^ 



o [Momotus] platyrhynchus Leadbeater, Trans. Linn. Soc, xvi, pt. i, 1829, 92 

 (Brazil; type now in Liverpool Mus.). — Momotus platyrhynchus Jardine and Selby, 

 Illustr. Om., iii, 1831, pi. 106 [bis]. — C[rypticus] platyrhynchus Swainson, Classif. 

 Birds, ii, 1837, 338. — Prionirhynchus platyrhynchus Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1857, 

 256 (e. Peru; Bolivia); Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xvii, 1892, 315, part. — Prionornis 

 platyrhynchus Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, ii, sig. 58*, July, 1895, 

 467, part. — Crypticus martii (not Prionites martii Spix) Bonaparte, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 Lond., 1837 (1838), 119; Nuov. Ann. Sci. Nat. (Bologna), ii, 1838, 411 (excl. syn. 

 Prionites martii Spix). 



