BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 391 



and black (sometimes with wliite or yellow abdomen or scarlet thighs), 

 or else yellow and black with greenish pileum. 



Bill shorter than head, narrowly conical or wedge-shaped, usually 

 very slightly decurved terminally, with tip acute; culmen nearly 

 straight for basal half or more, thence slightly and gradually 

 decurved to the acute tip of the maxilla; gonys straight or some- 

 times faintly concave terminally. Nostrils exposed, longitudinally 

 oval, overhung by rather broad membrane. Rictal bristles very 

 minute or obsolete. Wing moderate, rather pointed (ninth, eighth, 

 and seventh primaries longest, the ninth longer than sixth, sometimes 

 equal to longest); wing-tip equal to or longer than tarsus (usually 

 decidedly longer). Tail much shorter than wing (decidedly shorter 

 than distance from bend of wing to tip of secondaries), even or very 

 slightly rounded. Tarsus about as long as commissure or a little 

 longer, distinctly scutellate; middle toe with claw about equal to 

 tarsus or slightly shorter. 



Coloration.— Adult males bright bluish green to violet-blue, varied 

 with black, some species with the abdomen, etc., white or yellow, 

 or with scarlet thighs; or else the plumage yellow and black, with 

 greenish pileum; adult females much duller in color; greenish, olive, 

 or brownish above, paid below, the head sometimes bluish, with 

 grayish throat. 



^a^^e.— Nicaragua to Peru, Bolivia, and southern Brazil. 



This genus has hitherto included some half dozen species which cer- 

 tainly do not belong to it. These are D. pulcherrlma Sclater, which 

 I have made the type of a new genus, Irido])hanes,^ and referred, 

 provisionally at least, to the Tanagridee,' and the last six species given 

 by Dr. Sclater (except possibly I), salmoni, which I have not seen), 

 these latter, according to my views, constituting a distinct genus 

 {Ateleodacnis Cassin ^) and belonging to the Mniotiltidse. Of the spe- 

 cies left in Dacnis the most aberrant is D. jlamventris^ This has the 

 bill straighter than any other species (almost perfectly straight, in 

 fact), and has the tarsus much longer than middle toe with claw; the 

 coloration is very different from that of other species, clear lemon 

 yellow replacing blue, but the pattern is essentially the same. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OP DACNIS. 



a. Lores and at least part of back black; under parts (except throat, in some species) 

 bright blue or green, or else greenish black with scarlet thighs. (Adult males. ) 

 6. Under parts of body blue; thighs blue or bluish gray; wings with conspicuous 

 blue edgings. 



'Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., iii, 1891, 150. 

 *See page 2, this volume. 



^Ateleoda(mw Cassin, Proc. Ac Nat. Sci. Phila., 1864, 270. (Type, Dacnis leucogenys 

 Lafresnaye. ) 

 ' Dacnis flavivenlris Lafresnaye and D'Orbigny, Mag. deZool., 1839, Synop. Av., 21. 



