THE BLACK PENELOPES. 233 



which is about equal to the tenth, and the sixth is sligTitly the 

 longest.] 



Tarsus longer than the middle toe and claw. 



Only one species is known. 



L THE BLACK PENELOPE. PENELOPINA NIGRA. 



Penelope niger, Fraser, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 246^ pi. xxix. 

 Penelopina nigra, Reichenb. Tauben, p. 152 (1862); Ogilvie- 

 Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 503 (1893). 

 {Ha't XXXV 11 a ) 

 Adult Male. — The whole plumage black glossed with dark 

 green or bluish-green ; the under-parts, especially the belly, 

 browner and less strongly glossed. Naked space round eye 

 purple ; throat, fore-part of neck, and large wattle red. Bill, 

 legs, and feet red. Total length, 25 inches; wing 9-3; tail, 

 II ; tarsus, 2 "8-3 ; middle toe and claw, 2*6-2 "8. 



Adult Female. — IMay be distinguished by having the feathers 

 of the crown and back of the neck black edged with brown ; 

 the rest of the upper-parts barred with rufous and black ; the 

 chest sandy-brown, indistinctly mottled with black ; the breast 

 and sides with concentric bars of rufous-buff and dark brown ; 

 the belly brownish-grey, with dusky mottling. Colours of 

 naked skin, (S:c., and measurements as in the male. 



Range. — Central America ; the highlands of Guatemala. 



Mr. Salvin gives the following note on the peculiar sound 

 that this bird makes when on the wing. He says :— "I well 

 remember being startled by a strange sound when shooting in 

 one of the ravines in the Volcan de /^gua in Guatemala. Not 

 at first perceiving whence it arose, I walked on, when the noise 

 was again repeated. I then set about discovering the cause, 

 and soon found that it was produced by a male Fenelopina 

 nigra which, when flying in a downward direction with out- 

 stretched wings, gave forth a kind of crashing, rushing noise 

 which I likened at the time to the falling of a tree." 



