42. CYrnoEHixus. 289 



Young. Dingy brown, with indications of blackish bars on the 

 back ; the head uniform blackish, with the white eyebrow indi- 

 stinctly indicated ; quills very broadly barred with blackish ; below 

 dingy ashy, whiter on the chin, the flanks and lower abdomen 

 fulvous brown ; on the bastard wing a few white spots. 



The description of the adult male is from one of ilr. Salmon's 

 Colombian skins in the Museum. The young bird is quite a 

 nestUng, collected at Jalapa by De Oca, from whose skins the 

 Museum also selected an adult. The blackish head, therefore, seen 

 in many specimens (on which account Prof. Baird would have 

 recognized two species), seems to be a sign of more or less immaturity. 

 Mexican birds are smaller than those from more southern localities 

 and have distinctly shorter bills ; theii* colour is also paler, the crown 

 exactly resembling the back in colour. They may be found ulti- 

 mately to constitute a distinct race ; but at present there seems to 

 be a regular gradation in size between Mexican and South-American 

 specimens, the Colombian birds being larger than the majority of 

 Central- American and having the longest bUls. The Central- American 

 specimens have the throat more distinctly streaked, by means of the 

 blackish edgings to the feathers, than either the Mexican or South- 

 American birds. I have examined twenty-four examples in the 

 Museum collection and that of Messrs. Salvin and Godmau, whose 

 remarks on the species in the ' Biologia ' (/. c.) should be consulted. 

 The Grey-chested Wren is distributed over the whole of Central 

 America from Southern Mexico through Guatemala to Costa Rica and 

 Panama, and thence through Colombia and Venezuela, southwards 

 through Ecuador to Peni and Bolivia. It is always a more upland 

 species than the other members of the genus, and was found by 

 Mr. Salvin in Guatemala as high as 10,0U0 feet, descending, how- 

 ever, to 4000 feet. 



a. Ad. ; b. Juv. sk. Jalapa, Mexico. R. de Oca [PJ. 



e. Ad. sk. Mexico, M. A. SaUe [0.1 



rf, e. Imm. sk. Guatemala. M. A. Boucard [G.l. 



/. Ad. sk. Veragua. E. Atci5 [C.]. ' 



y. Ad. sk. Bogota. Purchased. 



h. Ad. ; /. Juv. st. Bogota. Purchased, 



k. Ad. sk. Antioquia, Colombia. T. K. Salmon, Esq. [C.]. 



I, m. Ad. sk. Santa Elena, Autioquia. T. K, Salmon, Esq. [CJ. 



42. CYPHORHINUS. „ 



Type. 



Cyphorhinus, Cahanis, ArchivfUr Xatury. 1844, p. 282.. .C. thoracicus. 



Cf. Baird, Eeview Amer. Birds, p. 112 ; Salvin ^- Godman, 



Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, i. p. 75. 



■ / 

 Head of Cyphorhinus modulator. 



