MOMOTUS. | 459 
Gould described this Motmot in 1836 from a specimen said to have come from 
Tamaulipas !; it was figured shortly afterwards by Jardine and Selby, from a specimen 
of unknown origin, under the name of WV. ceruleocephalus °, and it received yet another 
appellation from Lesson in 1847 11. Its range is restricted to the eastern portion of 
Mexico which extends from about the middle of the State of Vera Cruz northwards to 
Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon. From the last-named States we have many specimens, 
sent us by Mr. Richardson and Mr. Armstrong. In the neighbourhood of Jalapa it is 
found with its head uniformly blue, but a little to the southward of this district, on 
the road from Vera Cruz to Cordova and beyond it at Playa Vicente, birds show a slight 
admixture of black in the centre of the crown, and are thus intermediate between 
M. ceruleiceps and M. lessoni, the prevalent species throughout the more southern 
portion of Mexico and the whole of Central America. 
We have no special account of the habits of this species, which doubtless are like 
those of its close ally AZ. lessoni. . 
8. Momotus subrufescens. 
Momotus subrufescens, Scl. Rev. Zool. 1853, p. 489'; P.Z.S. 1857, p. 252°; Lawr. Ann. Lyc. 
N. Y. vii. p. 318°; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvii. p. 821, t. 10. fig. 14. | 
Momotus lessoni, Lawr. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. vii. p. 290°; Scl. & Salv. P. Z.S. 1864, p. 362°. 
M. lessont quoque affinis, abdomine plerumque rufescentiore, corona capitis argenteo-cerulea ad nucham 
rufescente nec nigro limbata. 
Hab. Panama, Lion Hill (M‘Leannan), Chepo (Arcé).—CotompBia!?; VenezveLa and 
Matto Grosso in Braziu?. 
Mr. Sclater separated this species from IM. swainsoni (sive bahamensis), the bird of 
Trinidad and Tobago, basing his description on specimens from Santa Marta in 
Northern Colombia!. With this birds from the Line of the Panama Railway agree. 
M. subrufescens can be readily distinguished from IM. lessoni by the absence of the 
black margin to the back of the blue coronet, the feathers there being slightly edged 
with chestnut. The body, too, beneath, is more rufescent. The range of this bird in 
the State of Panama is very restricted, and does not seem to pass beyond the Line of 
the Railway, where, however, it is far from uncommon. In the more western portion 
of the State, where Arcé collected so industriously, MW. lessoni alone is found *. 
The range of MZ. subrufescens in South America is restricted to the northern coast- 
region of Colombia and Venezuela; but Mr. Sharpe suggests a separation between the 
birds from these countries, and further remarks that Mr. Herbert Smith’s specimens 
from Matto Grosso are intermediate. 
* Mr. Sharpe * places one of Arcé’s specimens from Mina de Chorcha, a place not far from Chiriqui, under 
this species, but it is undoubtedly an example of the true MV, lessonz. 
58* 
