Mr. 0. Salvin on the Ornithology of Guatemala. 201 



Corrections to the former Papers on the Ornithology of Central 



America. 



In our introductory remarks (Ibis, 1859, p. 4) we somewhat 

 prematurely stated that the part of Central America of which 

 we were speaking embraced three distinct regions — the Atlantic 

 coast-region, the Central region or tablelands, and the Pacific 

 coast-region, and that the two coast-faunas were quite distinct, 

 the same species seldom occurring in both. In order to show 

 how this view must be modified, and in a great measure altered, 

 I will briefly state how the 612 birds are distributed, and how 

 much peculiarity is possessed by each division. As the central 

 country is deeply cut by valleys — those of the Motagua and 

 some of the southern branches of the Rio Chisoy or Negro, such 

 as the river of San Geronimo — all of which open out into plains 

 of considerable extent, viz. those of Zacapa (1200 feet above 

 the sea), Salama (3000 feet), Rabiual, Cubulco, and so on, the 

 vegetation of which consists of open grassy savannas broken by 

 patches of Mimosce and Cacti, I shall begin by considering this 

 a separate district, and also the highland (peninsula of cold 

 country I may call it) district of Alta A^era Paz. 189 species 

 were observed in the Pacific coast-region, 280 in the tablelands 

 of the Cordillera, i. e. at 4000 feet of elevation and upwards, 132 

 in the central plains and valleys, 214 in Alta Vera Paz, and 

 309 in the Atlantic coast-region. 31 of the Pacific coast-region 

 birds were observed only there ; the number of species peculiar 

 to each of the other districts were observed to be 63 in the 

 tablelands, 11 in the central plains, 26 in Alta Vera Paz, and 

 149 in the Atlantic coast-region. Most of the remaining 

 species of the Pacific coast-region belong also to that of the 

 Atlantic, and only a few to the tablelands. The tablelands 

 and Alta Vera Paz have more species in common than either 

 has with any lowland region, and the central plains and valleys 

 belong rather to the terra caliente than to the upland districts. 



After deducting from the number of species apparently pecu- 

 liar to each region such as are really of much wider range, we 

 find but little, except perhaps poverty of species, to separate the 

 Pacific coast-region and the central plains and valleys from the 



