44 Mr. R, Ridgway on three Guatemalan Birds. 



lower parts of quite a different colour, being yellowisli olive 

 (in some specimens dull greyish) instead of bright oil-yellow. 

 C. spinescens likewise has no dusky on the chin or throat, 

 and has a jiroportionately much smaller bill. 



With C. notata no comparison need be made, there being 

 no close resemblance, except in the shape of the bill, which 

 is similarly elongated and acute. 



2. Ammodromus petenicus, Salvin, //. c. 



In general appearance this species resembles very closely 

 the " Coturnicuhis manimhe, var. dorsal'ts" of Hist. N. Am. B. 

 vol. i. p. 549, but is quite distinct. It differs in lacking the 

 yellow supraloral spot, which in the present bird is greyish 

 white, in having a distinct dusky line along each side of the 

 throat, of which there is no trace in C dorsalis, in the much 

 paler yellow of the wing-edge, in the much darker colour of 

 the lateral lower parts, and in the decidedly darker ground- 

 colour of the dorsal surface. There are also other marked 

 differences of coloration, but those mentioned are the most 

 conspicuous. If the Fringilla numimbe, Licht., and its allies 

 (Coturniailus peruanus, Bii., and the above-mentioned bird 

 from the Argentine Republic, Uruguay, &c.) are rightly 

 placed in the genus Coturniculus, the present bird would seem 

 to belong there also, since it is very closely allied; but I 

 doubt the propriety of referring any of these birds to either 

 Coturniculus or Ammodromus, all the typical species of which 

 are distinguished by their very narrow and finely acuminate 

 rectrices. 



3. Spizella pinetorum, Salvin, //. c. 



This species is far more closely related to S. socialis than 

 to S. pusilla ; indeed I cannot see why it should ever have 

 been compared with the latter. The resemblance to S. so- 

 cialis extends to all parts of the coloration, the pattern of 

 which is identical in the two, but all the tints are much 

 darker in S. pinetorum. Thus the crown is a very rich dark 

 chestnut, much darker even than in the fully adult spring 

 plumage of Melospiza palustris, while that of S. socialis is 

 clear rufous, as much paler than the tint of M. pahistris as 



