466 



centers to the breast-feathers, not very distinct ; bill horn-browu, yellow- 

 ish at tip of lower mandible ; cere and feet slate-color. Total length, 

 24.5 inches; culmen, 1.25j wing, 16.5; tail, 10.5; tarsus, 3." — (Sharpe.) 



BemarttS. 



According to Gould and Darwin (1. c), the sexes differ greatly in size 

 and color, the male having the bill hlaoli^ cere icMte, tarsi gray, and col- 

 ors browner, while in the female the bill is ash-gray, the cere and feet 

 dutch- orange. 



The above description of the adult is from the specimen in the National 

 Museum. Sharpe mentions also shaft-streaks of white on outer upper 

 tail-coverts and minute white tips to the feathers of the abdomen, neither 

 of which features exist in the specimen before us, which, however, has 

 a central, broadly-lanceolate spot on each of the primary coverts, white 

 markings at base of inner webs of outer primaries, and narrow, white 

 tips to the same — features not mentioned by Mr. Sharpe. 



List of specimens in United Slates National Museum. 



Locality. 



Tierradel Fiieso. 



When 

 collected. 



From whom received. 



United States exploring expedi- 

 tion. 



-J! o 



M. 



Genus MILYAGO, spix. 



Milvafjo Spix, Av. Bras. 1824, 12 [type, Polyhorus chimacJdma Vieill].— Gurney, 

 Cat. Eapt. Nor. Mas. 1864, 26. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS.* 



General external features. — Bill much as in Phalcobcenus, but tomia 

 -with the indentations more distinct. Feet slender, the tarsus about 

 one and a half times the middle toe; outer toe just appreciably longer 

 than the inner; claws normal, sharp, but rather short. Tarsus covered 

 with four longitudinal rows of very regular hexagonal scutellse, the 

 three lower plates of the interno-anterior series twisted to the front, and 

 appearing as a continuation of the plates on the top of the toes. 



Pterylosis. — Head normally feathered, but the feathers of the gular 

 region loose-webbed. Eemiges, 23. Tracts as in Ibycter (Daptrius), " but 

 stronger in all its parts, and the spinal tract different, having a remark- 

 ably short fork, witti its limbs broad and strongly divergent. The pos- 

 terior portion reaches this fork with its most anterior sparse feathers." — 

 (Ii^iTZSCH.) Wing long, the remiges well developed; second to fifth quill 

 longest; first equal to or shorter than the sixth; inner webs of outer 

 four sinuated (three deeply and one slightly). Tail rather long (about 

 two-thirds the wing), very slightly rounded, the feathers rather narrow. 



^Osteology. — What is most probably the skeleton of one of the species of Milvago 

 possesses the following characters : Skull most like that of Ibycter americanus, but 

 frontal with a very deep median valley anteriorly and suddenly much inflated pos- 

 teriorly ; nostril more regularly circular and more completely rimmed, its tubercle 

 more exposed. Length of skull, 2.30 (1.00) ; width, 1.15 ; depth, 1.00. The sternum 

 differs from that of both Ibycter and Polyborus in possessing a pair of very deep double 

 indentations. It measures 1.60, 1.10, 0.90, 0.50. Tibia : tarsus = 2.70 : 2.00. 



