Page:Birds of North and Middle America partIII Ridgway.djvu/151

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BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA.
125

pt.x, Oct., 1877, 439-442, pl. 79. — Boucard, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1878, 53 (Navarro and Rancho Redondo, Costa Rica, alt. 4,000 ft.). — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, i, 1883, 221, pl. 14. — Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., X, 1885, 219 (Irazú distr., Costa Eica). — Zeledon, Anal. Mus. Nac. Costa Rica, i, 1887, 108 (La Palma de San José and Rancho Redondo de San José, Costa Rica). — Alfaro, Gaceta Of., no. 288, 1888 (Volcan de Poás, Costa Eica). — Bangs, Proc. New Engl. Zool. Club, iii, 1902, 58 (Boquete and Volcan de Chiriqui, Chiriqui, 4,000-11,000 ft).

Family DULIDÆ.

THE PALM CHATS.

Rather small arboreal ten-primaried acutiplantar Oscines with the bill deep and compressed, the culmen strongly curved; nostrils wholly exposed, circular, in anterior end of distinct nasal fossæ; tail decidedly shorter than wing, even; outermost (tenth) primary much less than half as long as the next (ninth); under parts conspicuously streaked; plumage rather hard and harsh, very different from the silky blended character of that of the Ampelidæ and Ptilogonatidæ.

The Palm Chats are a small group, consisting of only two known species, one of them peculiar to Haiti, the other of unknown habitat but presumably some part of the West Indies. They are allied to the Silky Flycatchers (family Ptilogonatidæ), from which they differ, however, in much stronger beak and feet (the latter with strongly curved claws), shorter tail, and harsher, firmer plumage, with the under parts conspicuously streaked.

They are said to frequent chiefly the cocoanut palms and to feed both on fruits and insects.

Genus DULUS Vieillot.

Dulus Vieillot, Analyse, 1816, 42. (Type, "Tanagra esclave" Buffon, = Tanagra dominica Linnæus.) (See Strickland, Jardine's Contr. Orn., 1851, 103, 104.)

Bill decidedly shorter than head (exposed culmen not longer than inner toe), relatively deep and compressed, its depth at nostrils equal to more than half the length of exposed culmen; culmen decidedly curved from the base, but tip of maxilla not distinct, its subterminal tomial notch obvious but minute; maxillary tomium faintly concave, the basal portion straight or very faintly convex; gonys nearly equal to distance from nostril to tip of maxilla, straight and ascending terminally but rather prominent and slightly convex basally. Nostril roundish or transversely ovate, entirely exposed, in anterior end of nasal fossæ, separated behind from feathering of frontal antiæ by naked membrane. Rictal bristles obvious but minute. Wing rather long, rounded; eighth, seventh, and sixth primaries longest, the fifth shorter than eighth; ninth shorter than fourth; tenth between one- third and one-half as long as ninth; wing-tip about equal in length to