Zoological Society* 421 



I believe that the specimen described by M. le Baron De Lafres- 

 naye was from my collection. 



Colapf.es rupicola, D'Orb., is a Bolivian species, entirely terrestrial. 

 I found it on the elevated table-land called' the Punas, which form 

 the departments of Potosi, Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, La Paz , and 

 Oruro. They are occasionally intersected by valleys and isolated 

 mountains, but the unbroken plains are sometimes several leagues in 

 extent. You find C. rupicola at an altitude of 12,000 to 14,000 feet, 

 and generally in the grass, where it feeds. On being disturbed it 

 takes an undulating flight towards some rock, on which it settles, for 

 this country is entirely destitute of trees. It most frequently occurs 

 in little companies of five or six. 



Another species of Colaptes, which frequents the warm plains of 

 Moxas, near the town of Trinidad, not unfrequently resorts to the 

 trees which there grow in forest patches, and in this particular it 

 resembles C. chilensis. 



The genus Dendrocolaptes, as far as I have had opportunities of 

 observing their habits, exactly resemble the woodpeckers, ascending 

 the trees and searching the bark in a similar manner, and even sup- 

 porting themselves by the tail. In the plains between the Indian 

 town of Loretto and Trinidad, about long. 62°, I found a beautiful 

 instance of the modification of form to a particular end, in the ap- 

 parently singular species 



D.procurvus, D'Orb. & De Lafr. 



As far as my experience goes, it only occurs in the open palm- 

 groves which crown the undulating elevations which here and there 

 rise up above the ordinary level of this district. In them I found a 

 palm called Mutacu, with foliage like the date-palm. The short 

 peduncles of the fallen leaves afford shelter to numerous coleoptera, 

 and they grow from the trunk in a curve exactly similar to that which 

 characterizes the bill of this species, so that as he runs up the trunk 

 he is able to search all these lurking-places to the very bottom, al- 

 though their form renders them impregnable to every other assailant. 



In the dense forests, where this particular palm is never to be found, 

 I observed an abundance of the other species, but D. procurvus not 

 once. 



3. Drafts for a new arrangement of the Trochilid^. By 

 John Gould, F.R.S. (continued from p. 409.) 

 The Ornism. Sappho of Lesson, and a nearly-allied species which 

 I shall describe in the present paper, appear to differ in so many 

 characters from all the genera of this family hitherto instituted, that 

 I propose to place them in a distinct genus or subgenus, under the 

 name of Cometes, with the following characters : — 



CoMETEs, nov. gen. 

 Char. gen. — Rostrum capite longius, cylindraceum, decurvatum. 

 Cauda vald^ furcata, plumis latis, truncatis. Tarsi nudi. Pedes 

 moderati. Digitus et unguis postici digito et ungue mediis bre- 

 viore&. 



