BIRDS — MERGINAE — LOPHODYTES. 



815 



Head with an elongated slender occipital crest. Head and upper part of neck dark green, 

 turning to black below and behind. Rest of neck and under parts generally cream white. 

 Jugulum and sides of neck below light brownish red, streaked with black. Sides of body- 

 beneath wings sharply undulated transversely with white and black ; the concealed portion of 

 back mottled with black and gray. Feathers just before the bend of wing, white, margined 

 sharply with black ; the fore part of back, interscapulars, and inner long scapulars, with the 

 primary quills, black. Wing coverts, secondaries, outer scapulars, and tertials, white ; the 

 wing showing two black bars across the base of the greater coverts and secondaries ; the tertials 

 edged externally with black. 



Female with the head and neck above chestnut, tinged above with ashy ; the upper parts 

 bluish ash ; the lower white. The white on the wing is confined to the ends of the greater 

 coverts and of the secondaries ; their basal portions black. There is no visible dark bar, as the 

 coverts have none at their tips, and cover the basal black of the secondaries. The outer tertials 

 are whitish, edged externally with black. 



There is not the slightest difficulty in distinguishing the adult male birds of this species from 

 M. americanus. The females likewise are very similar, but differ in the specific character of 

 the bill. The colors are much the same. The greater coverts in M. serrator lack the terminal 

 brown bar, while the black at the base of the secondaries is more extended, often showing 

 externally, while in the other the dark bar is on the tips of the greater coverts ; the basal black 

 of the secondary quills more concealed. The outer tertials are mostly white, edged externally with 

 black, instead of being plain bluish ash. The size is much less. 



List of specimens. 



LOPHODYTES, Reich. 



Lophodytes, Reicb. Syst. Av. 1852, p. ix. 



Cn. — Bill shorter than the head, black. Serrations compressed, low, short, inserted obliquely on the edge of bill ; the point 

 truncated, and not recurved nor acute. Tail more than half the wings. Tarsi short; half the feet. Head with a much 

 compressed, vertical, circular, and erect crest. 



But a single species of this genus is known to naturalists. 



