Derbyan Mountain-Pheasant. 249 



specimens previously sent and also to those that I have recently 

 been fortunate enough to obtain. 



The first specimen of the Oreop/uisis ever obtained was shot 

 by Don Joaquin Quinones about the year 1848, when in search, 

 in company with Mr. Wyld of Dueiias, of the large Pigeons 

 {Columba/asciafa) , Quails {Ortyx thoracicus, &c.), and other game 

 found in the forests of Calderas in the Volcan de Fuego in Gua- 

 temala. This bird was preserved by Mrs. Wyld, and sent as a 

 present to the late Mr. Klee, of the house of Klee, Skinner & Co. 

 of Guatemala, and by him forwarded to the late Earl of Derby. 

 It is now, I believe, to be seen in the Liverpool Museum, and is 

 the specimen from which the figure in Gray and Mitchell's 

 ' Genera of Birds ' was taken. 



A specimen brought to England by Mr. Skinner in the year 

 1855 I have not been able to trace ; I believe it arrived in bad 

 condition. For the two skins obtained by the same gentleman 

 in the following year Mr. Skinner was again indebted to Mr. 

 Wyld, who employed a man of the name of Jose Ordoiiez, a 

 native of Duenas (a hunter of deer and peccaries), to procure them. 

 This man has since assured me that it was not until he visited 

 the mountain for the third time that he succeeded in shooting 

 them. The high price Mr. Wyld paid for these two birds, and 

 the news of their great rarity in Europe, made the Oi-eophasis 

 more sought after ; and Mr. Rittcher, a resident in Guatemala, 

 succeeded in obtaining two, which were, I believe, forwarded to 

 Hamburg. Don Vicente Constancia, of Antigua Guatemala, 

 also, now has in his collection an indifferent skin. 



These seven examples are all that I can hear of as having 

 been preserved hitherto. 



During the six months I spent in Guatemala in 1858, I did 

 not obtain specimens of the Oreophasis, though Jose Ordonez 

 was taken into consultation. My collections were made princi- 

 pally in the plains about Dueilas, and not in the Volcano. Last 

 year (1859), while absent in Vera Paz, Jose Ordonez brought 

 one to the house at Duenas ; but no one being there to skin it, 

 it was lost. On my return I again employed the same man, and 

 the following morning had the satisfaction to see him walk into 

 the yard with one tucked under his arm, and again on the sue- 



