GEOTHLYPIS. 151 
possess but a single male specimen from the Volcan de Chiriqui. In Guatemala we 
found it at all elevations from the sea-level at Chiapam, on the shores of the Pacific, up 
to the central tablelands of 5000 feet elevation. About Duefias it was especially 
abundant, frequenting the reeds bordering the lake, and also in the bushes on the 
banks of the Rio Guacalate. 
In North America this species is one of the most widely spread, as well as familiar, 
of the Mniotiltide. Its habits have accordingly been very fully described *. Its nest 
is almost invariably placed on the ground, and is described as a large loose structure, 
composed outwardly of leaves and dry sedges covering an inner framework of finer 
materials more carefully woven, the lining being of fine grasses. ‘The eggs are clear 
white, dotted and blotched round the larger end with purple, reddish brown, and dark 
umber. 
In the larger West-Indian Islands Geothlypis trichas is also very common in winter, 
especially in Cuba and Jamaica”, where numbers are to be met with in all stages of 
plumage. In Central America, too, birds in similar phases of plumage are usually 
seen, females and young birds predominating, adult males in perfect feather being 
rather rare. oe 
Prof, Baird, in his ‘ Review of American Birds’ ®, describes at some length the differ- 
ences observable in individuals of this species; but he comes to the conclusion that no 
permanent characters are to be traced justifying its division into two or more races. 
This view is confirmed by subsequent writers. | 
2. Geothlypis melanops. 
Geothlypis melanops, Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 222; Scl.& Salv. P. Z.S. 1870, p. 551°; Salv. Ibis, 
1872, p. 146 et seq.’. 
Similis preecedenti quoad coloris capitis distributionem, sed pileo summo lactescenti-albo, cervicis lateribus flavidis, 
rostro nigerrimo et corpore toto subtus letissime flavo distinguenda. Long. tota 5:0, ale 2-4, caude 2°4, 
rostri a rictu 0°65, tarsi 0-9. (Descr. exempli ex Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 
2 supra fusco-olivacea, alis et cauda concoloribus, loris pallidis ; subtus ochraceo-flava, hypochondriis fusce- 
scentioribus ; rostro obscure corneo, pedibus corylinis. (Descr. feminz ex Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Mexico (U.S. Nat. Mus.), 8.W. Mexico (Rébouch 2). 
Of this species but little is known at present, as it seems never to have come under 
the notice of the many diligent ornithologists who have worked in Mexico. The only 
specimen of which the precise origin is at all exactly known was obtained by M. Rébouch 
near Putla or San Juan del Rio, on the western slope of the Cordillera, a little to the 
north-west of Oaxaca. Several other examples have come under our notice, all of 
them in collections of Mexican bird-skins, the precise origin of which cannot often be 
traced. 
- The bird is certainly like Geothlypis trichas, but can at once be distinguished by the 
