BIBDS OF NOETH AND MIDDLE AMEEIOA. 471 



Bill about as long as head, strongly decurved, very broad and de- 

 aressed (width at nostrils nearly equal to half the distance from 

 lostril to tip of maxiUa); culmen conspicuously carinate, the sides 

 )f maxilla immediately below the flattened ridge deeply hollowed out 

 )r concave ; gonys less than twice as long as mandibular rami, very 

 aroadly rounded, but with faint indication of a narrow median 

 idge; tomia very finely serrate, the serrations obsolete only at 

 jxtreme ends of tomia. Nostril rather small, roundish, in anterior 

 jnd of nasal fossa, partly concealed by latero-f rental feathering. No 

 jrefrontal (postnasal) bristles; rictal bristles obvious, but rather 

 iveak, those of malar apex larger and stronger, the feathers of 

 ihin with very minute bristly recurved points. Head completely 

 'eathered, the auricular feathers elongated, rather stiff, forming a 

 jonspicuoiis tuft; a tuft of elongated feathers on middle of lower 

 oreneck. Wing rather short and rounded, the longest primaries 

 jxceeding longest secondaries by not more than length of tarsus; 

 ifth, sixth, ^nd seventh primaries longest, the eighth longer than 

 ourth, the ninth equal to second or third, the tenth (outermost) 

 lecidedly less to slightly more than two-thirds as long as ninth. Tail 

 ibout one-third longer than wing, excessively graduated, the middle 

 )air of rectrices nearly one-third longer than next pair, with webs 

 ;ontracted subterminally or else (usually) completely denuded for 

 I distance equal to or greater than length of the racquet-shaped tip; 

 •ectrices 10, the outer pair nearly to quite two-thirds as long as next 

 3air. Tarsus shorter than middle toe with claw. 



Coloration. — General color plain green, more bluish on tail and pri- 

 naries; auricular tuft (together with orbital and loral regioEs) and 

 .uft on lower foreneck black; head, neck, and chest otherwise plain 

 .awny, or else supercihary region blue. 



Range. — Southern Mexico (State of Vera Cruz) to upper Amazon 

 i^'alley. (Two species.) 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OP ELECTRON. 



a. Pileum and Mndneck dull ciimamon-rufous or rusaet-tawny, the foreneck, chest, 

 and breast similar but rather lighter. {Electron platyrhynchus.) 

 h. Color of pileum, etc., darker, more castaneous; chin indistinctly dull greenish. 

 (Upper Amazon Valley, in Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador.) 



Electron platyrhynchus platyrhynchus (extralimital)." 



"' {Momotusi ■platyrhynchus Leadbeater, Trans. Linn. Soc, xvi, pt. i, 1829, 92 

 Brazil; type now in Liverpool Mus.). — Momotus platyrhynchus Jardine and Selby, 

 llustr. Om., iii, 1831, pi. 106 [bis]. — C[rypticus'\ platyrhynchus Swainson, Olassif. 

 Jirds, ii, 1837, 838. — Prionirhynchus platyrhynchus Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1857, 

 56 (e. Peru; Bolivia); Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xvii, 1892, 315, part. — Prionornis 

 >latyrhynchus Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, ii, sig. 58*, July, 1895, 

 67, part. — Crypticus martii (not Prionites martii Spix) Bonaparte, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 ;ond., 1837 (1838), 119; Nuov. Ann. Sol. Nat. (Bologna), ii, 1838, 411 (excl. syn. 

 ^rionites martii Spix). 



