TERSINA. 



487 



Family TERSINTDtE. 



Now that the genus Procntas of Illiger, upon which the family 

 name Procniatidae was founded, has been transferred to the 

 family Cotingidffi and the genus Tersina Vieill. is used in its place, 

 I propose that the family title be known henceforth as Tersinidse, 



This family, which consists of one genus and two species only, 

 is distributed over the greater part of South America — one of the 

 species occurring in British Guiana. 



Genus TERSINA Vieill. 



Tersina Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxxiii. p.' 401, 1819. Type 

 T. c(Bry,lea, Vieill. 



Fig. 184. — Tersina occidentalis. 



In this genus the bill is depressed, the width at the base is 

 about twice the length of the exposed culmen and the depth at the 

 nostrils is about one-half its width, the upper mandible is hooked- 

 at the tip. The wing is rounded, the second and third primaries 

 are longest and equal, and the first and fourth are about equal. 

 The tail is square at the tip and about two-thirds the length of 

 the wing. The^tarsus is only slightly longer than the width of 

 the bill at the gape. Cploration : male and female different. 



655. Tersina occidentalis. 



Western Swallow Fkuit-eateb. 



Procnias ventralis (nee 111.) Cab. in Schomb. Eeis. Guian. iii. p. 671, 



1848. 

 Procnias occidentalis Sclater, P. Z. S. 1854, p. 249 ("Nova Granada ") ; 



Brabourne & Chubb, :B. S. Amer. i. p. 398, no. 4093, 1912. 

 Procnias tersa Salvin, Ibis, 1885, p. 207 (Eoraima). 



