BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 525 



from Lima, Peru/ but the latter has a considerable whitish space on the 

 subterminal portion of the inner web of the outermost rectrix, S. 

 chryiiops having merely an edging of white on the terminal half of the 

 same feather. Whether the above mentioned differences are constant 

 or not can only be determined by examination of a much greater num- 

 ber of specimens. 



Sycalis chrysops Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1861, 376 (Jlexico; coll. P. L. 

 Sclater); Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 3d ser., ix, 1862, 340; Ibis, 1872, 45, 

 pi. 2, fig. 1. — Salvin, Ibis, 1866, 194 (Dueiias, Guatemala). — Sumichrast, 

 Mem. Boat. Soc. N. H., i, 1869, 551 (near Orizaba, Vera Cruz). — Salvin and 

 GoD.MAN, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, i, 1886, 432. 



\_Sycalii\ chrysops Sclater and Salvin, Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, 35. 



\_Sycalis arvensis.'\ Subsp. y. Sycalis chrysops Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xii, 

 1888, 384. 



[Fringillci] chrysops Gray, Hand-list, ii, 1870, 84, no. 7237. 



Genus VOLATINIA Reichenbaeh. 



Volatinia Reichenbach, Av. Syst. Nat., 1850, pi. 76, fig. 16. (Type, Tanagra 

 jacarini Linnteus. ) 



Very small Fringillidse with the bill acute-conical, the plumage uni- 

 form glossy blue-black (adult male), or else brown above and buff 

 beneath, with the chest conspicuously streaked (adult female and 

 young). 



Size very small (wing not more than 50.80 millimeters). Bill mod- 

 erate, conical, acute, with nearly straight outlines, decidedly deeper 

 than broad at base; culmen (from concealed base) about two-thirds as 

 long as tarsus, very slightly convex; gonys about equal to basal width 

 of mandible, nearly equal to length of maxilla from nostril, very 

 faintly convex; tomia nearly straight to the rather abrupt basal deflec- 

 tion. Nostrils exposed, small, longitudinally oval. Rictal bristles 

 scarcely obvious. Wing moderate (about three and a third times as 

 long as tarsus), rounded (ninth primary shortest); primaries exceed- 

 ing secondaries by less than length of bill from nostril. Tail about 

 six-sevenths as long as wing, less than three times as long as tarsus, 

 much rounded, the rectrices broad, with rounded tips. Tarsal scutella 

 rather distinct; middle toe with claw about as long as tarsus; lateral 

 claws falling decidedly short of base of middle claw; hallux rather 

 shorter than lateral toes, its claw shorter than the digit. 



Coloration. — Adult males glossy blue-black, with or without white 

 under wing-coverts; females and young brownish, paler (more or less 

 buffy) beneath, the chest conspicuously streaked with dusk3^ 



Range. — Continental Tropical America (southern Mexico to south- 

 ern Brazil, etc.); also islands of Trinidad and Tobago, and island of 

 Grenada, Lesser Antilles. (Monotypic.) 



iNo. 159840, U. S. Nat. Mus.; J. Kalinowaki. 



