2 Messrs. Sclater and Salvin on the 



The authorities at present existing on the ornithology of this 

 country are but few. The birds of Southern Mexico are known to 

 us through the researches of MM. Salle, Botteri, and Boucard*; 

 but none of these explorers have yet descended so far south as 

 the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Yucatan, which lies within our 

 limits, was visited by Dr. Cabot, who accompanied Mr. Stephens 

 in his second journey. Several interesting papersf on the 

 birds of this country were the results of this expedition, but 

 unfortunately no accurate list of the species obtained was ever 

 published. The only account of the birds of Guatemala that 

 we are acquainted with, besides some scattered notices of new 

 species by Dr. Hartlaub, the Vicomte DuBusJ, and others, is 

 the late Prince Bonaparte's article in the P. Z. S. 1837, '' On the 

 birds collected by Col, Velasquez de Leon during a fortnight's 

 scientific tour in Guatemala." He gives here the names of 

 thirty-nine species, some of which were then new. But several 

 well-known collectors have visited parts of this country, and 

 many of their specimens are now in the Derby Museum at Liver- 

 pool and our National Collection. M. Delattre passed some 

 time at Cohan, in the Vera Paz, during one of his ' voyages,' and 

 has given us an account § of the habits of that magnificent bird 

 the Pharomacrus paradiseus, which he first observed near that 

 city. The late Mr. Dyson (whose chief object was, I believe, 

 to procure the Ocellated Turkey) collected also on the Bay of 

 Honduras and obtained many fine specimens. The late Senor 

 Don Jose Constancia, of La Antigua Guatemala, was a corre- 

 spondent of the late Mr. H. E. Strickland, and sent him several 

 collections of birds, some of which were figured in Sir William 



* See " Catalogue of the Birds collected by M. Augusts Salle in Southern 

 Mexico," by P. L. Sclater, P. Z. S. 1856, p. 283 ; and other papers, P. Z. S. 

 1857, p. ^l, p. 201, p. 210, and p. 226 ; and 1858, p. 95 and p. 294. 



t See Boston Journal of Natural History, iv. p. 246, and p. 460, 

 V. p. 90, and p. 416; and the Appendix to vol. ii. of Stephens's 'Travels in 

 Yucatan.' 



X See " Description de sept oiseaux de Guatemala, par le Dr. G. Hart- 

 laub," Rev. Zool. 1844, p. 215; " Sur une nouvelle espece du genre 

 Melanotis,'" ibid. 1852, p. 460: Du Bus in Bull. Acad. Bruxelles and 

 ' Esquisses Ornithologiques.' 



§ See Rev. Zool. 1843, p. 163. 



