MELANOPTILA. ; o7 
country to the mountains of Alta Vera Paz, and there ascends to the vicinity of Coban, 
where it is very common in winter at an altitude of from 4000 to 5000 feet above the 
sea. In the more southern parts of Guatemala we have only once met with it, a spe- 
cimen having been obtained on October 22nd, 1873, by an Indian hunter near Barranco 
Hondo on the slope of the mountains between the Volcanoes of Agua and Fuego at an 
elevation of nearly 4000 feet. Southwards of Honduras we have only two records of it— 
one from the Blewfields river, and another from the Panama Railway. The last record 
is not in Mr. Lawrence’s Catalogue of Panama birds, but rests on a specimen sent from 
Frijole Station by M‘Leannan to the Smithsonian Institution. 
In Cuba G. carolinensis is a common bird in winter 2%, 
The habits of the species in the United States are fully given by Baird, Brewer, and 
Ridgway, and also by Dr. Coues. In Guatemala, as might be expected, the bird does 
not sing, but passes a retired life in the second-growth woods and about the edges of 
clearings. Our specimens were all obtained in the autumn and winter months, betwee 
October and February. | 
MELANOPTILA. 
Melanopiila, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1857, p. 275. (Type Melanoptila glubrirostris, Scl.) 
A peculiar genus of very restricted range, being only found as yet on the coast of the 
Gulf of Honduras and the coral islands which line the shore. It is quite probable that 
its range extends both northwards along the coast of Yucatan and also eastwards to 
Cape Gracias a Dios, tracts as yet ornithologically unexplored. 
The name glabrirostris, chosen by Mr. Sclater for the single species, was suggested 
from no rictal bristles being observed in the specimens he examined. In all of our ex- 
amples, however, they are fairly well defined. 
1. Melanoptila glabrirostris. (Tab. III. fig. 2.) 
Melanoptila glabrirostris, Scl. P. Z. 8. 1857, p. 2757; Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p- 7°; Moore, P.Z.S. 
1859, p. 55°; Salv. Ibis, 1864, p. 380°; Baird, Rev. Am. B. p. 55°. 
Sericeo-purpurascenti-nigra, alis et cauda magis chalybeo tinctis; rostro et pedibus nigerrimis. Long. tota 
75, ale 3:6, caudee 3°5, rostri a rictu 1-0, tarsi 1-15. (Descr. maris ex Half-moon Cay, British Honduras. 
Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. British Honypuras, Lighthouse and Glover’s Reefs (O. S.*), Corosal (Roe) ; Hon- 
Duras (Delattre'), Omoa (Leyland 123), 
This interesting species was first described by Mr. Sclater from specimens in the 
Derby and British Museums, obtained by the French collector Delattre somewhere in 
Honduras, and from one in his own collection brought home by Mr. J oseph Leyland 
from the vicinity of Omoa!. Mr. Leyland was not able to give much information 
respecting the bird, as only one other individual came under his notice. 
4* 
