Page:Birds of North and Middle America partV Ridgway.djvu/96

This page needs to be proofread.
68
BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM.
cc. Middle and greater wing-coverts not distinctly, if at all, tipped with buffy.
d. Pileum and hindneck dull slate-grayish; back, etc., more grayish olive; under parts paler buffy, the throat and flanks nearly white.
Myrmopagis melæna, adult female, (p. 68).
dd. Pileum and hindneck brown; back, etc., more brownish olive; under parts deeper (more ochraceous) buffy, the throat ochraceous-buff, the flanks buffy olive.
Myrmopagis schisticolor, adult female (p. 71).

MYRMOPAGIS MELÆNA (Sclater).

BLACK ANTWREN.

Adult male. — Above plain black or slate-black, the wing-coverts spotted or dotted with white (a roundish or subtriangular spot at tip of each feather), outer web of exterior row of scapulars broadly edged with white, and a large white patch covering inner-anterior portion of lesser wing-covert area;[1] lateral rectrices (sometimes all but middle pair) tipped with white; under wing-coverts, broad edgings to inner web of remiges, and an extensive patch of soft elongated feathers covering sides and flanks, white; rest of under parts uniform black, or slate-black; bill black, the mandible sometimes more plumbeous; iris brown; legs and feet horn color (bluish gray or grayish blue in life); length (skins), 78-99 (91); wing, 50-56 (52.4); tail, 29.5-37 (32.4); culmen, 13-14.5 (13.6); tarsus, 15-17 (15.7); middle toe, 8.5-10 (9).[2]

Immature male. — Similar to the adult male, but the black of upper parts replaced by blackish slate, that of the under parts by slate color, clouded, more or less extensively, with black, the chin and upper throat sometimes mostly pale gray or grayish white; younger individuals with terminal spots of greater wing-coverts buffy instead of white.

Adult female. — Pileum and hindneck dark mouse gray or dull slate color, passing into olive on back and scapulars, this into brownish olive or olive-brown on rump and upper tail-coverts; tail dusky brown, the rectrices edged with russet-brown or sepia; general color of wings deep olive or olive-brown, the greater wing-coverts and secondaries more russet-brown on edges, the primaries edged with lighter and more buffy olive; middle and greater wing-coverts indistinctly tipped with russet-brown; auricular, suborbital, and malar regions, chin, and throat dull buffy whitish, the first suffused with grayish and with narrow shaft-streaks of whitish; rest of under parts, including under wing-coverts and broad edgings to inner webs of remiges, buff (more or less deep) ; maxilla blackish brown with paler tomia, mandible dull yellowish (bluish gray or grayish blue in life);

iris brown; legs and feet horn color (bluish gray or grayish blue in


  1. Usually there are also narrow and indistinct whitiah edgings to some of the remiges.
  2. Fifteen specimens.