140 MNIOTILTIDA, 
Hab. Nort America, Texas **’®.—Guatemaa, Alta Vera Paz, near Tactic (0. 8.1). 
The early history of this rare species is given as follows by Salvin in Rowley’s ‘ Orni- 
thological Miscellany : ’— 
“The only time that I met with this bird was during my first visit to Vera Paz, in 
Guatemala, in 1859. I was riding to Coban, the chief town of Alta Vera Paz, on the 
4th of November, and had just surmounted one of the ridges of the mountainous road 
that leads to the village of Tactic, where I intended passing the night, when two birds 
attracted my attention, and I secured both. On examination at home they proved to 
belong to an undescribed species; and the name of Dendreca chrysoparia was bestowed 
upon it by Mr. Sclater and myself. 
“The altitude above the sea where I shot these birds is about 4500 feet, or a little 
more. ... The birds were, after the manner of their congeners, hopping about the 
lower branches of the forest-trees, which are there not very high. But I was too intent 
upon securing the specimens to observe much of their movements and habits. 
“A few years after this (in 1863-64) Mr. Dresser, during his stay in Texas, obtained 
a single specimen of Dendreca chrysoparia. THe did not shoot it himself, but received 
it with other Mniotiltide from a man of the name of Ogden, who shot it at Howard’s 
rancho on the river Medina.” 
The three specimens obtained up to 1876 were all figured in the work just quoted 7. 
In the ‘Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club’ for 1879 (vol. iv.) we find two 
further references to this species, the latter account going a long way to complete its 
history. In April 1878 Mr. G. H. Ragsdale obtained a male specimen in Bosque county, 
Texas. This example is now in the United-States National Museum ; but no particulars 
of its capture are given®. Mr. Brewster, in the same Journal °, fully describes the 
breeding-habits of the species as furnished to him by Mr. Werner, who writes that 
whilst on a collecting-tour in the mountainous district of Comal County, Texas, he 
noticed these Warblers, and describes their habits as very similar to those of D. virens, 
being very active and always on the alert for insects, examining every limb of a tree for 
them, and now and then darting after them while on the wing. He found them 
invariably in cedar timber. On the 13th May, after some search, he found a nest 
containing three eggs, and one of the Cow-Bunting. Three other nests also were 
discovered, all similar in construction and placed in the forks of perpendicular limbs of 
Juniperus virginianus, at a height of from 10 to 18 feet from the ground. The outside 
of the nest is composed of the inner bark of the above-mentioned tree, interspersed with 
‘cobwebs well fastened to the limb, and in colour resembling the bark of the tree on 
which it is built, rendering it difficult to detect at a little distance. 
Mr. Brewster describes the nest, more fully, as being in general character and appear- 
ance like that of D. virens, only twice the size. The interior is beautifully lined with 
the hair of different animals and numerous feathers, those of the Cardinal Grosbeak 
