BIKDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 381 



Medium-sized Bucconidae (length about 187-205 mm.) with bill as 

 long as or longer than head and much compressed, tarsus as long as 

 outer anterior toe without claw, tip of maxilla distinctly bifid or cleft, 

 bristles round base of bill very strong, tail nearly as long as \ymg[ 

 longest prmiaries decidedly longer than longest secondaries, upper 

 parts grayish brown, indistinctly blotched with dull whitish, tail 

 plain grayish brown, and under parts buffy with a pectoral band 

 (sometimes a jugular band also) of blackish, the throat sometunes 

 duU tawny. 



Bill as long as or longer than head, distmctly compressed (its depth 

 at nostrils decidedly greater than its width at same pomt) ; exposed 

 culmen decidedly shorter than combined length of tarsus and outer 

 anterior toe, without claw, straight for more than basal half, then 

 first gradually then rather strongly decurved termmally, rounded or 

 indistmctly ridged; tip of maxilla conspicuously bifid, or mcised 

 medially; gonys nearly to quite twice as long as mandibular rami, 

 gently but distinctly convex, ascendmg terminally, rather prominent 

 basally, rounded; maxillaiy tomium nearly straight, sometimes 

 with basal thhd (more or less) slightly deflected. Nostril small, 

 roundish, openmg postero-laterally, m anterior end of the very short 

 and broad nasal fossa, covered by antrorse prefrontal bristles, these 

 extending over less than basal half of maxilla, slender, but exceedingly 

 rigid. Kictal bristles very strong, extremely rigid; malar apex with 

 much smaller antrorse bristles, the feathers of chin wath long, slender 

 recurved bristly pomts. Wmg moderate, the longest prunaries 

 exceedmg distal secondaries by about length of tarsus; seventh and 

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

 shorter than fifth (sometunes shorter than fourth), the tenth (outer- 

 most) slightly less to slightly more than half as long as the longest. 

 Tail nearly as long as wing (seven-eighths as long, or more), strongly 

 rounded, the lateral rectrices about four-fifths as long as middle pair, 

 the rectrices rather narrow, mth tip rounded. Tarsus equal to or 

 slightly longer than outer anterior toe \^dthout claw. 



Plumage and coloration. —PlumsLge soft, that of under parts blended, 

 that of upper parts with feathers distmctly outlined but \\dth margms 

 more or less broken (the webs semidecomposed) ; orbital region 

 feathered. Above grayish brown, blotched with dull whitish, the 

 tail plam; under parts buffy with a pectoral band (sometimes a jugu- 

 lar band also) of blackish, the throat white or dull tawny. 



Range.—Eastern Panama to Colombia and Venezuela. (Two 

 species.) 



