132 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ORNITHOLOGY, VOL. I. 



It is exceedingly active, so much so that it is rather difficult to obtain. 

 It frequents thickets of young cypress and shrubbery of various sorts. 

 Eight specimens were secured. Iris dark brown. 



Family Mimidse. 



281. Mimus gilvus guatemalensis Ridgway. 



One specimen was collected at Lake Atitlan, the only locality 

 where this species was found, and it was not common there. 



282. Qaleoscoptes carolinensis (Linn&us}. 



Catbirds were common at Belize and at Los Amates. None were 

 observed outside the low, wet tierra caliente of the Atlantic side of 

 the country. In the almost impenetrable thickets of that region, 

 the collector rarely knows what he is shooting at, and as a rule it does 

 not matter, but if he hails from the north, he very soon becomes 

 tired of picking up catbirds. Two specimens were brought home, 

 both from Los Amates, one collected in January and the other April 

 ist, both in excellent plumage. 



283. Melanotis hypoleucus Hartlaub. 



This fine mocker was found between 5,000 feet and 6,500 feet, along 

 the road from Lake Atitlan to Tecpam. It frequents the thick bushes 

 which grow in water-courses, and acts in general like the more familiar 

 members of its family, the catbird, mockingbird and thrasher. 

 Three specimens were collected. Iris dark brown. 



Family Troglodytidse. 



284. Heleodytes capistratus (Lesson}. 



Seven specimens were collected, the localities represented being 

 El Rancho, Lake Amatitlan, Patulul and San Jose". The Patulul and 

 San Jos6 specimens differ from those from El Rancho in having the 

 back darker and without the obscure bars more or less observable on 

 all the birds from the latter place. Evidently they are intermediates 

 between H. c. capistratus and H . c. nigricaudatus. Several nests were 

 found in the course of construction as early as February i5th, but so 

 far as could be judged they were built in response to an instinct for 



