AMPELIS.—PTILOGONYS. 217 
migrations it is uncertain, often remaining throughout the year in places where the 
winter happens to be mild. It is a late breeder, unhatched eggs having been found as 
late as October. Owing to the depredations they make on the fruit-trees, great 
numbers of these birds are yearly destroyed. But fruit is not their only food; for they 
also consume quantities of insects, especially their larve, in the spring and early 
summer. ‘The nest is usually placed in a low bush or a tree, not more than twenty feet 
from the ground, and is composed of a strong framework of twigs, coarse vegetable 
stems, and grasses; inside this is a compact structure of grasses, fibres of vine-stems, 
&c., and a lining of leaves and fine rootlets. ‘The eggs, five or six in number, have a 
ground-colour either slaty or stone, and are blotched with several shades of purple- 
brown 1. 
PTILOGONYS. 
Ptiliogonys, Swainson, Phil. Mag. new ser. i. p. 368 (1827). 
Ptilogonatus, Sw. Zool. Journ. iii. p. 164. 
Ptilogonys, Bp. Consp. i. p. 335; Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 410. 
The wing, though pointed in this genus, has the secondary quills much longer in 
proportion to the primaries than in Ampelis; the tirst primary is well developed; the 
second and third, falling considerably short of the point of the wing, are acute, the 
third being slightly curved outwardly towards the tip; the fifth is the longest, the 
fourth and sixth being nearly equal; the tail is long, nearly square at the end in 
P. cinereus, cuneate, with the central feathers much elongated, in P. caudatus; the bill 
is short, the gape wide, the rictal bristles being moderately developed; the nostrils are 
oval, the frontal feathers nearly reaching to the proximal edge of the nasal opening. 
The plumage, though soft, is rather more open in texture than in Ampelis. 
Of Ptilogonys, as now restricted, only two species are known—one inhabiting the 
highlands of Mexico and Guatemala, the other the mountainous districts of Costa Rica. 
The genus has no nearer ally than Phainopepla in North America; and in South 
America nothing approaches it even remotely. 
1. Ptilogonys cinereus. 
Ptiliogonys cinereus, Sw. Phil. Mag. new ser. i. p. 868+; Zool. Ill. new ser. ii. t. 627; iii. t. 102°. 
Ptilogonys cinereus, Bp. Consp. i. p. 335*; Scl. P. ZS. 1856, p. 299°; 1858, p. 302°; 1859, 
363"; 1864, p. 173°; Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 18°; 1860, p.31°°; Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. 
p- 412"; Sumichrast, Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p. 548"; Dugés, La Nat. i. p. 141”; Lawr. 
Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 273"; Salv. Cat. Strickl. Coll. p. 147”. 
Ptiliogonatus cinereus, Sw. Zool. Journ. iii. p. 164%. 
Hypothymis chrysorrhoa, Temm. Pl. Col. 45277. 
Hypothymis mexicanus, Licht. Preis-Verz. mex. Vég. p. 2, cf. J. f. Orn. 1863, p. 58". 
Cinereus, capite summo dilutiore, fronte, oculorum ambitu et mento albis; regione parotica et cervice postica 
griseo-fuscis ; alis et cauda quadrata sericeo-cyanco, nigris, hujus rectricibus quatuor utrinque lateralibus 
plaga quadrata magna alba notatis, hypochondriis olivaceo-flavis, abdomine imo et tibiis albis, crisso luteo ; 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Aves, Vol. I., March 18838. 28 
