518 BUCCONIDZ. 
Hab. British Honpuras (Blancaneaux); Guatemata, Coban (V. Constancia §), 
Choctum, Chisec (0. 8S. & F. D. G.); Nicaraeua, San Carlos, Santo Domingo, 
Rana (W. B. Richardson), Escondido R. (Richmond 1°), Greytown (Holland °). 
M. inornata was described in 1847 by Vicomte DuBus! from a Guatemalan 
specimen, the characters given indicating that the specimen in question must have been 
a female bird. The male was subsequently named UM. verepacis by Sclater and Salvin 
in 1860 8, the differences between the sexes in some species of this genus not having 
then been appreciated. 
In 1870 Salvin? had occasion to compare this northern bird with the more southern 
M. panamensis, and gave the result as follows :—‘* In the northern bird, for which the 
term inornata is the older and must be adopted, the male is distinguished by the 
rufous colouring extending nearly uniformly over the whole surface below, being 
slightly paler on the lower belly, and bearing very slight traces of dark markings on 
the margins of the feathers. In the southern form, for which the name panamensis 
must be retained, the breast alone is clear ferruginous, and is succeeded below by 
strongly mottled plumage, formed by the black lateral margins of each feather; the 
lower belly is pale fulvous, nearly white. ... . The females of the two forms are so 
exactly alike that it is not possible to distinguish them.” 
Until quite recently If. inornata was only known to live in the vast forest-region 
of northern Vera Paz, whence we have received many specimens from the collectors 
who frequent that district from Coban, but where we were not fortunate enough 
actually to see it ourselves. Within the last year or two we have received specimens 
from Eastern Nicaragua and the Mosquito coast, both from Mr. Richardson and 
Mr. Richmond; and though the latter naturalist has referred his examples to M. pana- 
mensis, we have no hesitation in stating that they are very much nearer to IZ. inornata 
and cannot really be distinguished from it. Mr. Richmond, in his paper on the 
collections he made on the Escondido river, speaks of some very dark examples, which 
Mr. Ridgway describes, suggesting the name MV. fuliginosa for them 11, In view of 
the variability of these birds and our extreme reluctance to admit the likelihood of 
two closely-allied forms coexisting in the same district, we prefer to leave the question 
of the status of these birds in abeyance for the present, awaiting further information 
respecting this form. 
M. inornata, like.the other members of the genus, seems restricted to the hotter 
lowland forests of the countries in which it lives, and probably does not pass beyond 
an altitude of 2000 feet in the mountains. It is wholly absent from the lowlands of 
Guatemala and the countries south of it bordering the Pacific Ocean. 
