w m m i
AULACORHAMPHUS ALBIVITTA.
White-banded Groove-bill.
S p e c i f i c C h a r a c t e r .
A u l. rostro nigro, a d basin fa s c ia alba circumdato ; culmine toto ad apicern usque laterumque
mandibulce superioris partes, citreis in viridiscentem transeuntibus; mandibula inferiore ante
fa s c iam albam macula sanguined n o ta ta ; g u la albidd.
All the upper surface and wings dark tinged with brown; on the crown and the nape of the
neck grass-green ; primaries brownish black, margined externally at the base with dark
grass-green ; tail deep grass-green, passing into blue towards the extremity, and tipped
with rich chestnut; throat white in some, grey or bluish white in others; under surface
pale grass-green, very slightly washed with blue on the breast, and with yellow on the
flanks; around the orbits and down the sides of the neck bounding the white of the grey
throat a line of blue; under tail-coverts rich deep chestnut; bill black, with the exception
of the culmen and upper half of the upper mandible, which are greenish yellow, passing
into purer yellow a t the tip and the lower angle of the under mandible which is chestnut;
on the sides of both mandibles at the base a broad band of straw-white; orbits re d ; feet
greenish lead-colour.
Male.— Total length, 13t inches; bill, 3 i ; wing, 4 * ; tail, j j j tarsi, I t .
Pteroglossus albivitta, Boiss. Rev. Zool. 1840, p. 70.—Sturm’s Edit, of Gould’s Mon. of
Ram ph. text.
----------------- albivittatus, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 404, Pteroglossus, sp. 31.
----------------- microrhynchus, Sturm’s Edit, of Gould’s Mon. of Ramph.
Aulacoramphus albivitta, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 96, Aulacoramphus, sp. 3.
T h is is one of the least of the family of Ramphastidse yet discovered. It is a native of the Columbian
Andes, and specimens occur in most of the collections sent from thence to this country. It differs from the
Pteroglossus prasinus of Lichtenstein, to which it is nearly allied, in having a broad band of white down the
sides of the base of the mandibles.
Considerable difference occurs in the size of the specimens, which is perhaps due to sex, the larger being
the males, and the smaller the females.
The figures are of the natural size.