1 38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



rupted near Da^d(l, the capital to\vii of tlie pro^dnce, by a lower 

 and nearly parallel range of hills. On these plains feed numerous 

 herds of cattle and horses, forming the principal source of industry 

 of the inhabitants. When the grass grows scanty during the dry- 

 season, the animals betake themselves to the valleys of the 

 Cordilleras, returning, however, each one to his grazing ground 

 on the approach of the rains. The whole aspect of the country, 

 seen from an elevation near the Pacific coast, is very picturesque 

 and beautiful. It is one of those spots so charmingly arranged 

 by the hand of nature, that few travellers, having once passed 

 through it, would soon forget it. In its zoological and botanical 

 physiognomy it shows a great many forms similar to what we see 

 in the warmer plains of Central America. 



David, the capital of this province, is a small town of 5000 or 

 6000 inhabitants, about a league distant from the mangrove 

 swamps and inlets of the Pacific; its latitude being 8° 28' north, 

 and longitude 82° 28' west, about fifteen miles, in a direct line, 

 from the sea coast. On arriving at this place, somewhere about 

 1845, I often heard the natives speak in high terms of the beauty 

 of a bird in the Cordilleras, called Guahita de Montana, literally 

 mountain macaw, probably so called from having a long tail like 

 the red and blue macaw, which is very common in the plains. It 

 was not until M. de Warsenrtz, a Prussian naturalist, arrived 

 there, and proceeded to the Cordilleras in search of Orchids, 

 where he shot two or three sjiecimens, that the bird was recog- 

 nised to be the Trogon resjjkndens of Gould, a species which he 

 had often seen in Guatemala, the only locality where it was sup- 

 posed to be found. This indisputable fact I have not yet seen 

 mentioned in any notice of the bird since published, yet it gives 

 us a certain data as to the extent of the geograpliical distribution 

 of the species. From the base of the volcano of Chiriqui in the 

 Cordilleras, where we find it, to the high table lands of Quezal- 

 tenange in the republic of Guatemala, is a distance of at least 

 300 miles, or from eight degrees of latitude to fifteen degrees north. 

 Lately, I have been informed that the bird has been found on 

 some of the volcanic mountains of Costa Kica. A certain eleva- 

 tion on extinct volcanoes seems to be necessary for its favourite 

 residence. In Chiriqui, as soon as you arrive at the oak region, 

 about 3500 feet above the sea, you find them generally in pairs, 

 flying from one tree to another. They seldom show themselves 



