to rather strongly uncinate; maxillary tomium straight, distinctly notched subterminally; mandibular tomium nearly straight, minutely toothed and notched subterminally, the tip of mandible forming a short recurved point; gonys gently convex, slightly ascending terminally, not prominent basally. Nostril exposed, posteriorly in contact with feathering of latero-frontal antiæ, roundish or broadly oval, its upper- posterior margin membraneous, the interior tubercle visible within posterior portion. Rictal bristles present but minute, the feathers of chin, anterior portion of malar region, and lores with long terminal setæ. Wing moderate, with longest primaries extending to decidedly beyond secondaries; sixth and seventh, or fourth, fifth and second, primaries longest, the tenth (outermost) less than three-fifths but more than half as long as the longest, the ninth about equal to or slightly shorter than secondaries. Tail a little more than half to more than two-thirds as long as wing, slightly rounded or nearly even, the rectrices (12) narrow, subrounded or subacuminate terminally. Tarsus much longer than exposed culmen, about one-third as long as wing, slender, the acrotarsium distinctly scutellate, the plantar scutella in two longitudinal series, less distinct on outer side; middle toe, with claw, much shorter than tarsus; outer toe, without claw, reaching to slightly beyond middle of subterminal phalanx of middle toe, the inner toe a little shorter; hallux about as long as inner toe, but much stouter; basal phalanx of middle toe wholly united to outer toe, for about half its length to inner toe; claws moderate in size and curvature, that of the hallux decidedly shorter than the digit. Plumage full, soft, and blended, longer and more lax on rump; pileum not crested.
Coloration. — Adult males olive or olive-greenish above, the head and neck gray or slate-colored (sometimes streaked or spotted with blackish), the lesser wing-coverts black, spotted with white or with a white area on inner-anterior portion; under parts mostly whitish or yellowish (at least medially), the throat and chest sometimes streaked with gray or blackish. Adult females duller in color, with pileum rufescent.
Range. — Guatemala to British Guiana, southeastern Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru. (About ten species.)[1]
- ↑ I have not seen D. guttulatus (Lichtenstein), D. tambillanus Taczanowski, D. xanthopterus Burmeister, nor D. flemingi Hartert. All these except D. xanthopterus appear, however, to be congeneric with D. mentalis, etc., so far as I am able to judge from descriptions; but the style of coloration is so different in D. xanthopterus (chestnut-rufous wings and lower back, white spots on sides of head, etc.) that I doubt its close relationship.
D. leucostictus Sclater, D. schistaceus (D'Orbigny), D. ardesiacus Sclater and Salvin, D. unicolor Sclater, and D. subplumbeus Sclater and Salvin, I unhesitatingly exclude, as being much more nearly related to the genus Erionotus Cabanis and Heine (= Thamnophilus, part, of Sclater).
D. plumbeus (Maximilian) I have seen but have not now at hand, and therefore can not verify my impression that it is congeneric with D. mentalis and allies.
