250 Mr. 0. Salvin on the 



ceeding day with one under each arm. The first of these was 

 a male, the other two females, — the three skins which were 

 exhibited by Mr. Sclater at the Meeting of the Zoological Society 

 on March 13, 1860. Being particularly desirous both of seeing 

 the bird alive and of shooting it myself, and having the fruit 

 taken from the crop of one of the above-mentioned birds, as a 

 clue to indicate in what trees it would most likely be found, I set 

 off for the mountain soon after this, with Jose Ordonez for my 

 guide. We started at six o'clock in the morning at break of day, 

 reached the forest region at nine, and continued climbing until 

 we had almost passed out of it into the region of Pines and 

 coarse grass with which the peak is clothed, but no Oreophasis 

 was met with. Descending again, we struck the barranco in 

 which Jose had shot the specimens he brought me ; but with no 

 better success, except that I found unmistakeable " sign " in the 

 shape of feathers, and the fruit of the tree I had been in search 

 of. Though not successful, this expedition was satisfactory in 

 one respect — I had seen a spot where the Oreophasis certainly had 

 visited, and where my specimens had been killed. The truth of 

 the latter fact I have no reason to doubt. From a habit one 

 acquires of looking upon a Oentral American half-breed as a rascal 

 till he has proved himself honest, I certainly did at first suspect 

 that Jose was deceiving me, and that he had no idea of allowing 

 me to poach upon his peculiar preserve of Oreophases. I regret 

 that I cannot give any other than Jose's account of the habits of 

 this bird ; but as his stories bear a semblance of truth, I do not 

 hesitate in transcribing them. In the early morning he told me 

 he usually found them in the upper branches of the forest trees, 

 searching for their favourite fruit, which they eat both ripe and 

 unripe ; as the day advances they descend to the underwood, where 

 they remain all day, basking or scratching among the leaves. This 

 is pretty much what a Penelope or a Crax does, both of which I 

 have frequently had opportunities of observing in the forests of 

 the low lands. The cry of the bird he could not describe 

 satisfactorily. 



As the Volcan de Fuego is at present the only known 

 locality from which the Oreophasis has been obtained, I will 

 here shortly describe its physical conformation. The north- 



