BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA, 581 
KEY TO THE SPECIES OF MICROCHERA. 
a. Under parts purplish black or dark metallic reddish purple; pileum white. (Adult 
males.) 
b. Under parts and anterior upper parts purplish black; tail more extensively 
white basally. (Western Panamd.) 
Microchera albo-coronata, adult male (p. 581). 
bb. Under parts and upper parts (except pileum) metallic reddish purple; tail 
less extensively white basally. (Costa Rica.) 
Microchera parvirostris, adult male (p. 582). 
aa. Under parts very pale gray or grayish white; pileum metallic greenish. 
b. Lateral rectrices with basal half white and white tip broader. 
Microchera albo-coronata, adult female (p. 581). 
bb. Lateral rectrices mostly black (only the extreme base whitish or grayish) and 
white tip narrower...........-. Microchera parvirostris, adult female (p. 582). 
MICROCHERA ALBO-CORONATA (Lawrence). 
VERAGUAN SNOW-CAP. 
Adult male ——Entire pileum immaculate satiny white, the feathers 
distinctly outlined, producing a squamate or imbricated effect; nape 
and hindneck purplish black, passing into very dark metallic reddish 
coppery purple on back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, this into much 
brighter coppery purple on rump and upper tail-coverts; middle pair 
of rectrices dark coppery bronze; other rectrices white for basal two- 
thirds (approximately), black terminally, the outermost narrowly 
margined at tip with grayish; remiges dusky faintly glossed with 
purplish; under parts (except under tail-coverts) and sides of head 
black, glossed with metallic reddish purple when viewed from behind; 
under tail-coverts white; bill black; iris dark brown; feet dusky; 
length (skins), 61-63 (62); wing, 39-41.5 (40.5); tail, 20-20.5 (20.2); 
culmen, 11-11.5 (11.2).¢ 
Adult female.—Pileum and hindneck dark metallic green; rest of 
upper parts brighter green, passing into bronze on upper tail-coverts 
and middle rectrices; other rectrices white for basal half and black 
terminally or subterminally, the two outermost pairs broadly tipped 
with white; remiges as in adult male; under parts plain pale gray 
anteriorly, fading into white posteriorly; bill, etc., as in adult male; 
length (skin), 66; wing, 40.5; tail, 19.5; culmen (bill broken).° 
Immature male.—Similar to the adult female, but pileum bordered 
laterally by a superciliary stripe of white (forehead sometimes gray- 
ish), and under parts mixed more or less (according to age) with 
blotches or areas of purplish black. 
Western Panamé (Belén, Cordillera del Chucu, and Santiago, 
Veragua); Costa Rica? 
a Three specimens. 6 One specimen. 
