196 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, i^c. 



DUENAS. COBAN. 



Selasphorvis platycercus. 



Delattria henrici. 



Lamprolaema rbami. 



Thaumastura henicura. Thaumastura henicura. 



Thaumantias candidus. 



Lophornis helenae. 



" Duenas, Dec. 31st, 1859. 

 " My trip to Vera Paz terminated a few days ago. As yet, I 

 have not been able to arrange my collections, which are large, 

 so as to be able to say more than what I wrote to you by 

 last mail. I have been, and am exceedingly pleased with the 

 results, and have gained a vast deal of information as regards 

 the knowledge of the geography of the country. I fear you 

 will be rather staggered by the number of birds I anj sending — 

 some 800 ; but 1 little knew, when I first arrived at Cohan, 

 what powerful assistance I was going to have when I employed 

 the small boys and their pea-shooters to bring me birds at 

 a quartillo [\\d.) a piece. The skins from San Geronimo reach 

 100, and those I previously had here 250. Of those from the 

 former place, some are interesting, especially the beautiful Mot- 

 mot, which is common there; I also found Tryphcena duponti 

 and Amazilia curallirostris. The plain of Salama is, as you 

 will see on the map, connected by a tributary of the Rio de la 

 Passion with the northern coast-region of Yucatan. On the 

 opposite side of the southern range of hills which bound the 

 plain, not five leagues from Salama, at a place called Choaeas, 

 at about the same elevation, the watershed changes into that of 

 the Motagua or Rio Grande. Consequently I found, on pass- 

 ing from San Geronimo to this last-mentioned place, some five 

 or six birds I had never observed at San Geronimo, — and my 

 list of the birds of San Geronimo includes about 100 species. 

 The changes of the physical features of this country have sur- 

 prised and puzzled me much. The divisions seem to be these : 

 First, the northern and southern coasts, which include the dense 

 tropical forests; next come the arid plains and hills, such as 

 those of Zacapa and Salama, also a hot country ; next the table- 

 lands, which include the Altos ; and apart from these I place the 



