66 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Saurothera vieilloti (not of Bonaparte) Salle, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1857, 234 



(Santo Domingo). 

 Saurothera vieillotiirBuY ant, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H., xi, 1867, 95 (Santo Domingo). 



Genus TAPERA Thunberg. 



Tapera Thunbebg, Gotheborg.-k. Vet. och Vitterhets Samnallets Nya Handl., 

 iii, 1819, i. " (Type, T. brasiliensis Thunberg= Cuculus nsevius Linnaeus.) 

 Diplopterus Boie, Isis, 1826, 977. (Type, Cuculus nxvius Linnaeus.) 

 Diplopteris (emendation?) Gambel, Journ. Ac. Sci. Phila., 1849, 317. 



Medium-sized, semiterrestrial Cuculinae (length about 250-315 

 mm.) with bill only about half as long as head, stout, strongly de- 

 curved; tarsus more than one-fourth as long as wing; alulae greatly 

 developed, covering and concealing primary coverts; upper tail- 

 coverts very long, covering more than basal two-thirds of tail; pileum 

 conspicuously crested, and upper parts conspicuously striped. 



Bill very short and stout, about half as long as head, deep, com- 

 pressed, and strongly decurved; exposed cuhnen about half as long as 

 tarsus, strongly decurved from near base, its depth at anterior end 

 of nostril equal to about twice its width at same point, broadly 

 rounded; gonys decidedly longer than mandibular rami, faintly con- 

 cave, slightly prominent at base, broadly rounded; maxillary tomium 

 strongly concave anterior to nostril, thence rather strongly deflected 

 to the rictus, with no trace of subterminal notch. Nostril relatively 

 large, longitudinal (slightly oblique) narrowly ovate or elliptical. 

 Wing moderate, the longest primaries exceeding distal secondaries by 

 about length of middle toe without claw; seventh primary longest, 

 the sixth and eighth slightly but decidedly shorter and nearly equal, 

 the ninth shorter than fourth, the tenth (outermost) shorter than 

 first but much more than half as long as the longest; alulae greatly 

 developed, very broad and longer than primary coverts. Tail nearly 

 one and a half times as long as wing, graduated for more than one- 

 third its length, the rectrices relatively rather narrow especially 

 distally. Tarsus equal to or slightly longer than middle toe with 

 claw, more than one-fourth but less than one-third as long as wing, 

 rather slender, the toes also slender. 



Plumage and, coloration. — Feathers of upper parts distinctly out- 

 lined, long, especially those of pileum, rump, and upper tail-coverts, 

 the first developed into a conspicuous erectile crest, the last extremely 

 long, rather loosely webbed, covering more than basal two-thirds of 

 tail; plumage of under parts blended; orbits mostly naked; eyelashes 

 strongly developed; no trace of antrorse bristles about base of bill. 

 General color of upper parts dull ochraceous (the pileum more rufes- 

 cent), streaked and spotted with blackish; under parts plain buff 



a See Lonnberg, Ibis, 1903, 239. 



