BIEDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 381 



Medium-sized Bucconidse (length about 187-205 nun.) with bill as 

 long as or longer than head and much compressed, tarsus as long as 

 outer anterior toe without claw, tip of maxilla distinctly bifid or cleft, 

 bristles round base of biU very strong, tail nearly as long as wing, 

 longest primaries decidedly longer than longest secondaries, upper 

 parts grayish brown, indistinctly blotched with dull whitish, tail 

 plain grayish brown, and under parts buffy with a pectoral band 

 (sometimes a jugular band also) of blackish, the throat sometimes 

 dull tawny. 



Bill as long as or longer than head, distinctly compressed (its depth 

 at nostrils decidedly greater than its width at same point) ; exposed 

 culmen decidedly shorter than combined length of tarsus and outer 

 anterior toe, without claw, straight for more than basal half, then 

 first gradually then rather strongly decurved terminally, rounded or 

 iadistinctly ridged; tip of maxilla conspicuously bifid, or incised 

 medially; gonys nearly to quite twice as long as mandibular rami, 

 gently but distinctly convex, ascending terminally, rather prominent 

 basally, rounded; maxillary tomium nearly straight, sometimes 

 with basal third (more or less) slightly deflected. Nostril small, 

 roundish, opening postero-laterally, in anterior end of the very short 

 and broad nasal fossa, covered by antrorse prefrontal bristles, these 

 extending over less than basal half of maxilla, slender, but exceedingly 

 rigid. Kictal bristles very strong, extremely rigid; malar apex with 

 much smaller antrorse bristles, the feathers of chin with long, slender, 

 reciu-ved bristly points. Wing moderate, the longest pilmaries 

 exceeding distal secondaries by about length of tarsus; seventh and 

 eighth, or fifth, sixth, and seventh, primaries longest, the ninth 

 shorter than fifth (sometimes shorter than fourth), the tenth (outer- 

 most) slightly less to slightly more than half as long as the longest. 

 Tail nearly as long as wing (seven-eighths as long, or more), strongly 

 rounded, the lateral rectrices about four-fifths as long as middle pair, 

 the rectrices rather narrow, with tip rounded. Tarsus equal to or 

 shghtly longer than outer anterior toe without claw. 



Plumage and coloration. — Plumage soft, that of imder parts blended, 

 that of upper parts with feathers distinctly outlined but with margins 

 more or less broken (the webs semidecomposed) ; orbital region 

 feathered. Above grayish brown, blotched with dull whitish, the 

 tail plain; under parts buffy with a pectoral band (sometimes a jugu- 

 lar band also) of blackish, the throat white or dull tawny. 



Range. — ^Eastern Panamfi, to Colombia and Venezuela. (Two 

 species.) 



