CINCLID. 43 
Juv. plumis omnibus supra et subtus maculis distinctis fulvis nigro circumcinctis notatis. (Descr. exempl. ex 
Costa Rica. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Costa Rica, Tucurriqui (Arcé!), La Palma? and San José4 (v. Frantzius), Navarro 
(J. Cooper*), Dota Mountains and Rancho Redondo (Carmiol?), Volcan de Irazu 
(Rogers). 
Myiadectes melanops was one of our collector Arcé’s discoveries in Costa Rica soon 
after he reached that country from Guatemala in 1863. After sending us a small 
collection from the shores of the Gulf of Nicoya, he proceeded into the interior, and, 
crossing the mountains, descended into the valley of the Reventazon, and explored the 
neighbourhood of Tucurriqui and Turrialba with such success that a score of novelties 
reached us in the next collection he sent us. I. melanops was one of the most inter- 
esting amongst them; and of it he obtained several examples. Since then many 
specimens have been obtained by collectors, mostly in the forests of the Volcan de Irazu 
and in the Dota Mountains. Dr. v. Frantzius gives an account of the species, chiefly 
derived from its habits in confinement+; but he does not seem to have had a personal 
knowledge of it in its native haunts, as he speaks of its living in the tops of the highest 
trees—a place of abode so different from that of all its congeners that we cannot but 
think some other species must have been mistaken for it. A living specimen kept by 
Dr. v. Frantzius was fed exclusively on the fruit of Phytolacca decandra, to be obtained 
throughout the year in the neighbourhood of San José. The bird would not refuse 
other juicy fruits, but never touched insects of any kind. From Dr. v. Frantzius’s 
description of the gait and song of his captive bird it would seem that IZ. melanops in 
these respects quite resembles its congeners. 
Fam. CINCLIDZ. 
CINCLUS. 
Cinclus, Bechstein, Naturg. Deutschl. ii. p. 808 (1807). 
America possesses four species of this genus, belonging to two very distinct groups, 
the northern birds being closely allied to the Northern-Asiatic Cinclus pallasi, the 
southern species having characters of coloration peculiarly their own. Of the northern 
birds Cinclus meaicanus has a wide range throughout the Rocky Mountains, but is 
confined to that chain, whence it passes into Mexico and Guatemala. C. ardesiacus, of 
the high mountains of Costa Rica and Panama, is a local race of the northern bird. 
Thus in Central America we find no trace of near relationship with the two Andean 
species, one of which, however, is found as near our limits as the Quindiu Mountains 
in Colombia. | 
In the Old World Cinclus is distributed pretty generally throughout the mountainous 
6* 
