FAMILY BUCCONIDAE 



487 



Above medium size, dark in color, with white forehead, and rather 

 long decurved, orange-red bill. 



Description. — Length 270-300 mm. Adult (sexes alike), forehead 

 and anterior lores white ; rest of head black, changing to slate on 

 hindneck, back, and rump ; wing coverts paler gray in one race 

 {pallescens) ; tail bluish black ; primaries and secondaries slate-black, 



Figure 61. — White- fronted nunbird, monja, Monasa morphoeus. 



the latter edged more or less with slate; foreneck black like crown, 

 changing to slate-gray on middle of breast ; one race (grandior) with 

 white chin ; under tail coverts slate-black ; under wing coverts, and 

 inner base of primaries pale gray to slate-gray. 



Immature, similar, but with white of forehead (and chin, in the 

 race grandior) cinnamon to tawny-buff. 



The species is one of wide range in Central America on the Carib- 

 bean slope from southeastern Honduras through Nicaragua and Costa 



