ATTICOEA. 229 



Dr. Gundlach ^ says that in aiitvLmn. P. fulva changes its localities in Cuba from the 

 northern to the more southern parts of the island ; that it builds from March to June 

 in various places, such as houses, sheds, and caves, in great numbers, but not in all parts 

 of the island alike. It lays four or five white eggs covered with lilac spots, and others 

 of reddish brown. In Jamaica its habits are very similar, it being a very familiar 

 species, building in numbers in the houses attached to the old sugar-plantations. 



ATTICOEA. 



Atticora, Boie, Isis, 1844, p. 173; Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 305. 



We recognize six species of this genus (a seventh, A. patagonica, being unknown to 

 us), of which the three mentioned below occur within our region. The others all 

 belong to South America — A. fasciata to Guiana and the valley of the Amazons, 

 A. melanoleuca to Eastern Brazil, and A. cinerea to Ecuador. Of the species belonging 

 to our district, A. cyanoleuca has a very extended range over the whole of Tropical 

 America from Paraguay to Costa Eica ; A. tibialis is found in the State of Panama 

 and other parts of Colombia, and, it is said, Brazil ; A. pileata is peculiar to Guate- 

 mala. Thus the whole genus is a Neotropical one, no member of which reaches 

 Southern Mexico. 



The bill is much more feeble in Atticora than in Petrochelidon, and the whole build 

 of the bird less robust. The tail is longer in proportion to the body and more forked. 

 The nostrils open upwards and are unprotected by a membrane. The tarsi are slender 

 and longer in proportion to the size of the bird than in Petrochelidon ; and the toes are 

 weaker. The rump, moreover, is of nearly the same colour as the back. 



Prof. Baird split up Atticora into four subgenera, of which A. cyanoleuca represents 

 Pygochelidon, in which the basal joint of the middle toe is less adherent than in the 

 other divisions, and the proximal end of the tarsus is feathered only on its inner 

 su.rface. Notiochelidon is represented by A. pileata, and has the middle toe more 

 united to the rest than in Pygochelidon; the tarsus, too, is wholly bare. Neochelidon, 

 of which A. tiUalis is the sole species, has the toe as in Notiochelidon; but the 

 proximal end of the tarsus and the distal end of the tibia are densely feathered. 

 These characters are but slight, and the species possessing them are best left in Atticora, 

 where Prof Baird placed them. 



1. Atticora cyanoleuca. 



Hirundo cyanoleuca, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. N. xiv. p. 509 '. 



Atticora cyanoleuca, Burm. Syst. Ueb. iii. p. 147'; Cab. J. f. Om. 1860, p. 401'; 1861, p. 92'; 



Scl. Cat. Am. B. p. 40 ' ; Pelz. Orn. Bras. p. 18 ^ Salv. P. Z. S. 1870, p. 184' ; Scl. & Salv. 



P. Z. S. 1873, p. 258'; 1879, pp. 495', 595'°. 

 Atticora cyanoleuca, var. montana, Baird, Eev. Am. B. i. p. 310"; Lawr. Aim. Lye. N. Y. ix. 



p. 96^'; V. Erantzius, J. i. Om. 1869, p. 294". 



