348 TEINaiLLID^. 



This is especially shown in 0. torridus, in which there is great diversity, but which has 

 not on that account been divided. On the other hand, the size of the bill has in a 

 great measure been used to separate 0. maximiliani from 0. crassirostris (=0. melas, 

 Sol. & Salv.). 0. occidentalis can more readily be distinguished by its black under 

 wing-coverts, and from it 0. nuttingi is hardly separable. 0. funereus is a diminutive 

 form of 0. crassirostris, but easily recognized. 



The bill in Oryzohorus {0. crassirostris) is very stout, the culmen arched and reaching 

 back on to the forehead ; the tomia of the maxilla is abruptly bent, and there is a 

 corresponding angle in that of the mandible. The wings are short and rounded, the 

 third primary being slightly longer than the second and fourth, the first and fifth 

 being equal and a little shorter than the second and fourth ; the tail is moderately 

 long and rounded ; the tarsi stout, of moderate length, and longer than the middle toe. 

 The general colour of the male is black, of the female umber-brown ; but the male of 

 0. torridus is deep chestnut beneath. 



1. Oryzoborus nuttingi. 



Oryzoborus nuttingi, Eidgw. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. vi. p. 401 \ 



Niger ; alis intus ad basin griseo-albidis, subalaribus nigris ; rostro robusto, albido ; pedibus plumbeo-nigris. 



Long, tota 5-5, alae 2-7, caudse 2-7, tarsi 0-7. 

 $ . Supra saturate umbrino-brunnea ; subtus cinnamomeo-brunnea, subalaribus fulveseentibus ; rostro fusco- 



nigricante ; pedibus fuscis. (Desor. exempl. typ. ex Nicaragua. Mus. Smiths. Nos. 91,196 cJ , 



91,198?.) 



Eab. NiCAEAWUA, Los Sabalos {Nutting i). 



Mr. Ridgway described this species from two males and two females obtained by 

 Mr. Nutting in Nicaragua, and they are the only examples of a black Oryzoborus of 

 the larger 0. crassirostris type that we have seen from our country. Except that the bill 

 is decidedly large, the male only differs from that sex of 0. occidentalis in the almost 

 total absence of the white wing-speculum, a little white being still visible on raising the 

 coverts. In 0. occidentalis from Western Ecuador the speculum is quite small, and in 

 an example from Colombia it is still smaller ; hence we doubt if 0. nuttingi will prove a 

 definite species when a larger series of specimens are examined. All these birds have 

 the wing-coverts nearly black, and they thus differ from 0. crassirostris and its allies. 



Mr. Nutting speaks of this bird as rather common in a patch of marshy grass at the 

 hacienda of Los Sabalos, where it was apparently gregarious *. 



* On reexamining Salmon's specimens called 0. occidentalis (Sol. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1879, p. 506) we find that 

 the under wing-coverts are white, and that the birds must be referred to 0. orassirostris. To the same form 

 must be ascribed a " Bogota " specimen in our collection, though another from the same source belongs to 

 0. occidentalis, the two birds being probably shot on different sides of the mountain-range. 



The eggs of 0. crassirostris are greyish brown, indistinctly blotched with lilac-grey and strongly marked with 

 dark red-brown marks. 



