510 BtrCCOMD^. 



his station on the Panama Eailway. This district we supposed at one time to be the 

 extreme limit of its range in this direction ; but we have a skin from our collector 

 Arce from a point westward of the railway, and in his most recent list Mr. Zeledon 

 records its presence at Jimenez in Costa Eica ^. 



Fam. BUCCONID^. 



Bucconidce, Sclater^ Mon. Jacamars and Puff-birds, pp. xxvii et seq. (1882) ; Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. 

 xix. pp. 178-208. 



The Bucconidse, like the Galbulidse, is a family of purely Neotropical birds with 

 nearly the same geographical range over Continental America, both being absent from 

 the Antillean subregion. The Bucconidae is divided into seven genera, four of which 

 are represented in our region ; these are : Bucco with five species, Malacoptila with 

 two, Nonnula with one, and Monasa with two. Of the total number of forty-three 

 species we find ten in Central America, only two of which, viz. Malacoptila inornata 

 and Monasa grandior, are not found outside our limits, but both of them have very 

 close external allies. 



Compared with the Galbulidae, the Bucconidae have a much stouter bill, which is 

 wider at the base, and the culmen evenly curved for the greater part of its length and 

 depressed (in Bucco to a distinct hook) at the end ; the rictal bristles are strong and 

 curved, the nostrils are deeply sunk and overhung by strong, curved, bristle-like 

 feathers. The wings are short and rounded, the tail usually short, but elongated in 

 Monasa. The character of the plumage differs completely from that of the typical 

 Galbulidse, being destitute of any metallic tints, and the birds generally are of much 

 stouter build. 



The structure of various members of the family was fully examined by Forbes, and 

 his notes are given in the introduction to Sclater's Monograph. 



A. Rostrum robustum, apice hamato. 



BUCCO. 



Bucco, Brisson, Orn. iv. p. 92 (1760) ; Scl. Mon. Jacamars and Puff-birds, p. xxxv ; Cat. Birds 



Brit. Mus. xix. p. 179. 

 Tamatia, Lesson, Traite d'Om. p. 166. 

 Notharchus, Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein. iv. Heft 1, p. 149. 



Mr. Sclater admits twenty species of Bucco, which he divides into two subgenera, 

 Bucco and Nyctalus, on the shape of the bill, which is dilated at the base in the 

 species arranged under the former name, the sides nearly straight and more compressed, 

 in the latter the sides being slightly concave. These diff'erences are more distinct in 



