VOLATINIA. 443 



Genus VOLATINIA Reichenb. 



Volatinia Reichenb. Syst. Av. pi. Ixxix. fig. 16, 1850. Type V. jacarini 

 (Linn.). 



Fig. 166. — Volatinia splendens. 



This genus is easily recognized by the glossy steel-blue plumage 

 o£ the male and the sombre dress of the female. The bill is 

 pointed, its depth and width at the base being about equal. The 

 wing is, rounded, the second, third, fourth, and fifth primaries 

 longest and equal and the first about equal to the seventh. The 

 tail is rounded at the tip, and nearly equal to the wing in length. 

 The tarsus is about equal in length to the middle toe and claw. 

 Coloration : male and female different. 



630, Volatinia splendens. 



Glossy Gkassquit. 



Fringilla splendens Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xii. p. 73, 1817 



(Cayenne). 

 Volatinia splendens Salvin, Ibis, 1885, p. 215 (Bartica Grove) ; 



Brabourne & Chubb, B. S. Amer. i. p. 369, no. 3790, 1912. 

 Volatinia jacarina (nee Linn.) Salvin, Ibis, 1885, p. 215 (Eoraima) ; 



Sharps, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xii. p. 152 (part), 1888 (Eoraima and 



Carimang River). 

 Volatinia jacarina splendens Beebe, Tropical Wild Life in British 



Guiana, p. 136, 1917 (Bartica). 



Adult male. General colour both above and below glossy blue- 

 black ; axillaries white and some of the inner under wing-coverts 

 partially white ; flight-quills and tail-feathers black more or less 

 glossed with blue-black. 



Total length 113 mm., exposed culmen 8, wing 54, tail 46, 

 tarsus 15. 



The adult male from which the descriptioQ is taken was col- 

 lected on the Abary River in July 1906. 



