SPEEMOPHILA.— VOLATINIA. 357 



Mr. Whitely has recently found it in the vicinity of Mount Roraima at an elevation of 

 3500 feet. 



[Two birds, probably belonging to this genus, have been described from specimens of 

 Mexican origin, but which we have been unable to recognize : — 



1. Sporophila OTHELLO, Bp. Gonsp. Av. i. p. 498, ex Mexico. A black species 

 with white alar speculum, very probably either Oryzoboms funereus or SpermcypUla 

 oorvina. 



2. Spekmophila paeva, Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Ac. Sc. ii. p. 382, ex Tehuantepec city 

 {Svmichrast). The type is a female or young bird, impossible to recognize from the 

 ■description.] 



VOLATINIA. 



Volatinia, Reicheubacb, Av. Syst. t. 79 (1850). 



Volatinia may readily be distinguished from SpermopMla by the form of the nostrils, 

 which are exposed and situated in a membrane at the extremity of the nasal fossa ; 

 their form is somewhat elongated. In Spermophila the nostril is not so much exposed 

 and rounder. The bill in Volatinia is longer, sharper, and more compressed, the 

 •culmen straighter and with a sharper ridge, the tomia is more gradually curved. 



The wing is short and much rounded, the primaries not much exceeding the 

 secondaries in length ; third and fourth = and longest, slightly > second and fifth, 

 first nearly ^ secondaries. Tail rather long and slightly rounded. Tarsus =: middle 

 toe and claw. 



The general colour of the plumage is steel-blue black, the female being dusky and 

 striped on the chest. 



Volatinia, in one or other of its forms, is spread over the whole of Tropical America 

 from Brazil to Mexico, but is absent from the Antilles. 



1. Volatinia splendeus. 



Mingilla splendens, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. N. xii. p. 173'. 

 Volatinia Jacarina, Sol. P. Z. S. 1859, p. 365"; 1864, p. 174'; Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 17*; P. Z. S. 



1864, p. 353" ; 1870, p. 836' ; Cab. J, f. Orn. 1861, p. 2' ; Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. vii. p. 332" ; 



viii. p. 177'; ix. pp. 103", 201"; Mem. Bost. goc. N. H. ii. p. 276"; Bull. U.S.Nat. 



Mus. no. 4, p. 20"; Sumiehrast, Mus. Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p. 552"; Frantz. J. f. Om. 



1869, p. 301 " ; Salv. P. Z. S. 1870, p. 190x° ; Oat. Strickl. Col. p. 223"; Wyatt, Ibis, 1871, 



p. 328"; Salv. & Godm. Ibis, 1879, p. 200 "; Boueard, P. Z. S. 1883, p. 444'°; Nutt. & 



Ridgw. Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. vi. p. 383". 

 Volatinia jacarina splendens, Berlepsch, J. f. Orn. 1884, p. 295''''. 

 Nitente-cseruleo-nigra uiiicolor ; alis oaudaque nigris, plumis prope humeros albis ; rostro nigricante, mandibulae 



