374 FRINGILLIDZ. 
J. cinereus remain to be discovered. These must be looked for in the wide extent of 
unexplored country of Northern Mexico. 
2. Junco alticola. (Tab. XXVI. fig. 1.) 
Junco alticola, Salv. P. Z. S. 1863, p. 1891; Ibis, 1866, p. 193”. 
Junco cinereus, var. alticola, Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 580°. 
Cinereus, regioni oculari, pileo et nucha obscurioribus ; ventre medio albicante; hypochondriis, crisso et uro- 
pygio brunnescentioribus ; alis fusco-nigris, remigibus medialiter extus cinereo limbatis, interscapulio et 
secundariis extus rufescente-brunneis; cauda fusco-nigra, rectricibus duabus utrinque externis macula 
alba ad apicem notatis; rostro nigro, mandibula ad apicem albida. Long. tota 6-25, ale 3-1, caude 3. 
(Descr. exempl. typ. ex Volcan de Fuego. Mus. nostvr.) 
Ay. juyv. supra obscure brunnea fusco indistincte maculata, subtus sordide alba pectore et hypochondriis pallide 
fuscis undique fusco guttatis. 
Hab. Guatemata, Volcan de Fuego 10,000 to 12,000 feet, Volcan de Agua 10,000 to 
12,000 feet, Altos, Quezaltenango, Totonicapam, &c. (0. S. & F. D. G.1 2). 
This species is restricted to the higher districts of Guatemala, and is probably not 
found at an elevation of less than 8000 or 9000 feet above the sea. Onemerging from 
the forest-belt of the lofty volcanoes of Agua and Fuego, which ceases at an elevation 
of about 10,000 feet, and gives place to grassy slopes with scattered pines, one of the 
first birds that is met with is Junco alticola. Here it is not uncommon, flying about 
from bush to bush in company with such birds as Dendreca occidentalis, Turdus rufi- 
torques, and Zroglodytes brunneicollis. This bird was first discovered by us in the Volcan 
de Fuego in November 1861, and we afterwards met with it on the upper slopes of the 
Volcan de Agua and about the open upland country of the Altos of Guatemala near the 
towns of Quezaltenango and Totonicapam. 
J. alticola has been treated by American writers as a variety or race of J. cinereus, as 
if it were an imperfectly segregated form ?. This position for it cannot, we believe, be 
maintained. Not only are the two birds distinguishable in all stages of plumage, but 
their highland domicile gives each an isolated habitat, so that there is no suitable inter- 
mediate district where the necessary intermediate forms may be found. No doubt the 
relationship between J. cinereus and J. alticola is obvious, but nevertheless their 
segregation is complete. 
CHONDESTES. 
Chondestes, Swainson, Phil. Mag. n. ser. i. 485 (1827) ; Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 562; 
Coues, Key N. Am. B. ed. 2, p. 384. 
This genus contains two closely allied forms, one of which, C. strigatus, occurs within 
our limits. The bill is much like that of Zonotrichia, conical, and slightly tumid 
towards the nostrils. The wings are long, the first primary nearly equalling the second 
and third, which are subequal ; the longest of the inner secondaries slightly exceed the 
