406 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Head large, completely feathered, more or less crested, though 

 sometunes only the feathers of the occiput and nape are slightly 

 elongated; feathering of the anterior portion (all round) short and 

 dense; no trace of antrorse bristles anywhere about base of bill. 

 Bill long, strong, straight, much deeper than wide at base, sub- 

 pyramidal in cross-section, usually longer than head; culmen not 

 sharply if at all ridged, sometimes flattened basally, where, for a 

 greater or less distance, constricted laterally by a distinct, though 

 broad and shallow, lateral groove; gonys more or less convex, 

 ascending terminally, rather prominent basally through contraction 

 of the mandibular rami, the latter not more (usually less) than half 

 as long as gonys; commissure straight for most of its length, but 

 basally strongly sinuated from convexity of basal portion of maxil- 

 lary tomium. Nostril narrow (slit-like), longitudinal or somewhat 

 oblique, overhung by a more or less broad operculum. Wing mod- 

 erate to rather short, with longest primaries always longer than 

 longest secondaries; secondaries 12-15; primaries 11, but the 

 eleventh (outermost) minute or rudimentary; tip of wing rather 

 pointed, the seventh to ninth primaries longest, the tenth (apparent 

 outermost) longer than fourth. Rectrices 12, the tail one-half to 

 two-thirds as long as wing, slightly rounded. Feet relatively very 

 small, the tarsus not longer (usually shorter) than inner anterior toe 

 with claw, scutellate (sometimes in two irregular rows) in front, 

 granulated behind; lower portion of tibia naked, sometimes for 

 length of tarsus; hallux much shorter than inner toe, connected 

 with inner anterior (second) toe, so as to form with it and the others 

 a broad flattened sole, the surface of which is conspicuously granu- 

 lated, the middle toe united to the outer for the whole of its first 

 two phalanges, or more, to the inner for whole of the first pha- 

 lanx; outer toe nearly as long as middle toe, the inner (without 

 claw) reaching only to second articulation of middle toe; claws mod- 

 erately large, rather sharp, the middle one somewhat expanded, 

 but not pectinated, on inner edge; all the toes with the usual 

 number of phalanges (2, 3, 4, 5). 



In coloration none of the species have bright spectrum hues, 

 so common in the subfamily Daceloninse, though some have the 

 upper parts of a rather dull metallic bronze-green. In all the Ameri- 

 can forms the sexes are more or less different in coloration. 



KEY TO THE AMERICAN (aND RELATED OLD WORLD) GENERA OF ALCEDINIDyE. 



a. Tail only half as long as wing; tarsus shorter than inner toe without claw; malar 

 apex much nearer to eye than to nostril ; coloration white and black. 



Ceryle (extralimital).'* 



a Ceryle Boie, Isis, 1828, 316. (Type, Alcedo rudis Linnaeus.) 

 Africa to southern China. (Two species.) 



