Page:Birds of North and Middle America partV Ridgway.djvu/181

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BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA.
153

booted (nonsciitellate) or with scutella of acrotarsium faintly defined; middle toe, with claw, slightly more than three-fifths as long as tarsus (as long as or slightly longer than whole culmen); outer toe, without claw, reaching to or slightly beyond subterminal articulation of middle toe, the inner toe slightly shorter; hallux shorter than inner toe, considerably but not conspicuously stouter; basal phalanx of middle toe united for about half its length to outer toe, for loss than half to inner toe; claws rather short, slightly curved, that of hallux decidedly shorter than the digit. Plumage full, soft, and blended, that of rump and flanks (especially the former) more elongated and lax, that of pileum short, with feathers distinctly outlined; a very small naked postocular space.

Coloration. — Above olive (more grayish or dusky, on pileum) the back sometimes streaked with buff, the wings sometimes varied with buff or tawny; a buff orbital ring (indistinct or obsolete in H. dives); under parts with at least throat and abdomen white, the chest, sides, and flanks more or less buffy, ochraceous, or tawny, the first (at least) more or less streaked with black; sexes alike.

Range. — Nicaragua to Cayenne, southeastern Brazil, and western Ecuador.

(About nine species.[1])

KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OP HYLOPEZUS.

a. Wing-coverts unspotted; chest deep tawny-ochraceous, very narrowly streaked with black. (Caribbean slope of Nicaragua and Costa Rica.)

Hylopezus dives (p. 154).

aa. Wing-coverts conspicuously spotted with buff or ochraceous; chest white or buffy, very heavily streaked with black.

b. Flanks light grayish buffy, streaked with dusky. (Hylopezus perspicillatus.)
c. Back and scapulars conspicuously streaked with buff. (Eastern Panamá)

Hylopezus perspicillatus perspicillatus (p. 155).

cc. Back and scapulars inconspicuously or not at all streaked. (Western Panamá and southwestern Costa Rica.)

Hylopezus perspicillatus lizanoi (p. 156).

bb. Flanks bright buffy or tawny-buff, unstreaked.
c. Chest more heavily and more extensively streaked with black; buffy spots on wing-coverts more sharply defined; outer web of primaries brownish tawny. (Caribbean slope of Costa Rica and Nicaragua.)

Hylopezus perspicillatus intermedius (p. 156).

cc. Chest less heavily and less extensively streaked with black; buffy spots on wing-coverts less sharply defined; outer web of primaries olive-brown. (Guiana and Amazon Valley.)

Hylopezus macularius (extralimital).[2]


  1. Of these I have examined only H. dives (Sclater), H. intermedius (Ridgway), H. lizanoi (Cherrie), H. perspicillatus (Lawrence) and H. macularius (Temminck).
  2. Pitta macularia Temminck, Pl. Col., ii, livr. 85, July, 1830, in text to Genus Pitta, sp. 11 (Brazil). — C[olobathris] macularia Cabanis, in Wiegm. Archiv für Naturg., 1847, pt. i, 217. — Grallaria macularia Lafresnaye, Rev. Zool., 1842, 334; Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XV, 1890, 324.