408 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES N^ATIONAL MUSEUM. 



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the posterior (rictal) end ascending. Nostril exposed, narrow (slifci 

 like), obliquely longitudinal, overhung by a distinct operculxun. No 

 trace of prefrontal, rictal, malar, nor mental bristles. Wing moder- 

 ate or rather long, pointed, the longest primaries exceeding distal 

 secondaries by at least half the length of exposed cTilmen; eighth and 

 ninth primaries longest, the tenth (outermost) shorter than seventh, 

 sometimes equal to sixth. Tail a little less to slightly more than 

 three-fifths as long as wing, trimcate or very slightly rounded. Tarsus 

 as long as or longer than inner anterior toe without claw; lower por- 

 tion of tibia naked for nearly the length of tarsus. 



Coloration and plumage. — General color of upper parts bluish gray 

 (more or less dark), usually interrupted by a white collar across 

 hindneck, sometimes variegated by white spotting; tail (sometimes 

 black) with incomplete white bars or spots arranged xa transverse 

 series; throat and foreneck (sometimes most of under parts of body) 

 white; a jugular band of bluish gray (sometimes broken by white 

 spottiQg); in most species, imder parts of body cinnamon-rufous. 

 Feathers of crown, occiput, and nape narrow and elongated, forming 

 a conspicuous crest when erected. 



Range. — North and South America and Africa. (About six species 

 and subspecies.)" 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OP STREPTOCERTLE. 



a. Larger (wing 185-211); breast and abdomen cinnamon-rufous or rufous-chestnut. 

 {Streptoceryle torquata.) 

 b. Outer webs of secondaries without distinct, if any, white spots or bars. (North- 

 em Mexico to Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, and Ecuador.) 



Streptoceryle torquata torquata (p. 409). 

 65. Outer webs of secondaries conspicuously spotted or barred with white, 

 c. Under wing-coverts immaculate (white, in male, light cinnamon-rufous in 

 female); male with anal region and under tail-coverts slightly if at all barred 

 or spotted, female with under taU-coverts immaculate. (Islands of Guade- 

 loupe, Dominica, and Martinique, Lesser Antilles.) 



Streptoceryle torquata stictipeimis (p. 414). 

 cc. Under wing-coverts more or less spotted and streaked with dusky (white in 

 male, mostly white in female); male with anal region and under tail- 

 coverts heavily barred or spotted with bluish plumbeous, the female with 

 these parts more or less spotted. (Tierra del Fuego north to Patagonia, 

 Bolivia, and Peru.) Streptoceryle torquata stellata (extralimital).* 



" The only Old World species I have seen that seems to be strictly congeneric with 

 the American species of this group is S. maxima (Pallas), a species which is strikingly 

 similar in the details of form to S. torquata and not very dissimilar in coloration to S. 

 stellata. Another African species probably congeneric with these is 5. sharpd (Grould) . 



6 Alcedo stellata Meyen, Nova Acta Leop. Carol., xvi, Suppl., 1834, 93, pi. 14 (banks 

 of Rio Clado, Prov. San Fernando, Chile). — Mlegaceryle] stellata Reichenbach, Handb., 

 Alcedin.,1851, 24, pi. 409B, fig. 3487.— [Ceryle] stellata Lichtenstein, Nom.Mus. Berol., 

 1854, 67.— Cen/Zes««ZtoaPelzeln,Voy. "Novara,'' Vog.,1865,50; Sharpe, Mon. Alced., 

 1870, 77. — S[treptoceryle] stellata Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 151. — 

 Chloroeeryle stellata Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 264. — [Ceryle torquata.] Subsp. 



