456 CORACIIFORMES 



CHAP. 



nearly the same range as that of the Family, including the type 

 and sole Argentine species JR. toco, one of the largest forms, two 

 feet in length. This is black, with white rump, throat and fore-neck 

 (the last bordered with red), crimson vent, blue orbits, and orange 

 bill terminally blotched with black, which has been likened 

 to a lobster's claw. Several species have the throat and rump 

 yellow or orange, or the latter scarlet, as in R. ariel. The brilliant 

 bill and orbits vary considerably in colour ; the tail is square. 

 Andigena comprises some five forms from the highest forests of 

 Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, olive-brown or dark green 

 above, and with hair-like bluish -grey plumage below ; the crown 

 is black, the nape black or grey, the vent scarlet, the rump 

 yellow, and the tip of the graduated tail chestnut, except in one 

 instance. The bill shews black, yellow, or red, in varied combina- 

 tion, A, laminirostris having a square ivory-white basal plate on 

 each side of the maxilla. A. bailloni, of South-East Brazil, doubt- 

 fully placed in this genus, has a scarlet rump, yellow under parts, 

 greenish and reddish bill, and red orbits. Pteroglossus, the most 

 brilliant genus in the Family, exhibits green, scarlet, and yellow 

 hues, with areas or bands of black and scarlet on the lower sur- 

 face in thirteen out of eighteen species. The tail is graduated, and 

 the feathers below are somewhat hair-like. These Ara^aris, as they 

 are called, range from South Mexico to Bolivia and South Brazil. 

 The lovely P. beauharnaisi, of Upper Amazonia, has dark green 

 upper parts, with crimson on the rump and mantle; and light yellow 

 lower parts, tinged with red, which shew a scarlet ventral band 

 and black spots on the throat ; the maxilla is black with orange 

 culmen, the mandible white. P. aracari of Guiana and Lower 

 Amazonia has no red on the mantle, the smooth head and throat 

 are black, the maxilla is white with black culmen, the mandible 

 black. Some six species of Selenidera, remarkable for the dissimilar 

 sexes, and generally for the transversely striped or blotched beak, 

 range from South-East Brazil and Upper Amazonia to Nicaragua. 

 The males, except in S. spectabilis, have a distinct nuchal crescent 

 of yellow, less marked in the females ; the former have the head 

 and breast black, the latter usually chestnut ; but the hen of the 

 above species has the under surface black, that of S. piperivora 

 greyish-green. The general colour is dark green, with brown tip to 

 the tail, yellow or orange ear-coverts, and scarlet vent ; the beak is 

 whitish, reddish, or greenish, with black markings. Aulacorliam- 



