NOTES OK GUATEIM,ALAN BIRDS' — WETM'OORE 535 



haunting quail are called, and I spent considerable time in working 

 througli rather dense rain forest in wet and mud with one or two 

 glimpses of reddish-brown birds of fair size, or their excited calls as 

 they rose before the dogs behind cover, as the only result. Finally, 

 on November 27, three or four flushed from dense, low growth, and 

 one that chanced to pass within sight among the branches was 

 secured. Later another flew from dense second growth, and I shot it, 

 to lose it down the slope, where we found it only after long search. 

 The wings of this handsome bird do not make the startling roar of 

 northern quail and grouse. The crops of the two specimens were 

 filled with small drupes. 



One of the birds taken had the skin so torn that I could preserve 

 it only as a skeleton. The other is probably a male, though the sex 

 organs were destroyed by shot. 



These birds are rare in collections. In fact, so few have been 

 available that definite appraisal of the characters and ranges of the 

 forms that have been described is not now practicable, though I have 

 seen the specimens that are found in the Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ences of Philadelphia, the American Museum of Natural History, the 

 Field Museum, and the H. B. Conover collection, in addition to those 

 in the National Museum. In brief, the single specimen from Sierra 

 Santa Elena agrees most closely with the form nicaraguae, the dark, 

 slaty ear coverts and reduced amount of chestnut streaking indicat- 

 ing this alliance. The bird is, however, more grayish, less brown on 

 the lower back and rump, and is uniform in that area without mot- 

 tling. It is distinct from true leiicophrys of the eastern highlands of 

 Guatemala, that bird being much more heavily and extensively 

 streaked with chestnut. This identification represents an extension 

 of range of nicaraguae into west-central Guatemala, it having been 

 reported previously in this direction only as far as the mountains of 

 El Salvador. 



In my opinion hypospodlus of Costa Rica is not a distinct species 

 of Dendrortyx but merely a geographic race of D. UuGophry>^. 

 marked by the reduction of the chestnut streaking, and its restriction 

 to the foreneck and sides on the ventral surface, the lessened amount 

 of this streaking above, and general duller dark color. 



Family CHARADRIIDAE 



OXYECHUS VOCIFERUS VOCIFERUS (Linnaeus) : Killdeer 



Charadrms vocifenis Linnaeus, Systema naturae, ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. IHO 

 (South Carolina). 

 A killdeer, called in Guatemala coUarejo, was taken November 24 

 at 10,200 feet elevation at Desconsuelo from a flock of a dozen rang- 



