134 Messrs. Sclater and Salvin un the 



the road from Tzabal to Guat(;mala, the latter being about eleven 

 leagues from the capital, my attention was called by one of my 

 companions to a bird he had just seen cross the road. The 

 underwood was very dense at that part, and I had great diffi- 

 culty at first in catching a glimpse of the bird ; and when I suc- 

 ceeded, its distance from me was so short that I for some time 

 hesitated to shoot, my gun being loaded with No. 6 only. See- 

 ing no prospect of a better shot, I at last fired, and reduced my 

 specimen to a mangled mass, which I was only just able to make 

 into a very indifferent skin. 



"As the time between my first seeing the bird and shooting it 

 occupied some minutes, I was enabled to watch it closely. Its 

 habits assimilate to those of the Geococcy.x offinis, and it skulks 

 along the ground as that species does, now running rapidly, now 

 standing still with its head erect. But it differed from G. af- 

 finis in climbing about the branches of the low underwood. The 

 song of this Cuckoo, though short, is peculiarly rich in its tone, 

 and there is a mellowness in each note that I have seldom heard 

 surpassed. An Indian to whom I showed it at Laguna called 

 it ' El reloz,' or ' The watch,' and said that it sang at every hour 

 of the day, the length of the song depending upon the hour ; 

 thus, he said, that at 1 o'clock it sang a very short song, and at 

 12 o'clock a vei'y long one ! Another Indian called it 'El pa- 

 jaro tonto,' or ' The foolish bird,' a name strictly a])plicable, as I 

 could have almost caught the one I shot with my hand." 



The principal colour of the bare skin at the back of the eye 

 is almost cobalt-blue; the legs are brownish yellow, and the 

 irides dark. 



226. Geococcvx affinis, Hartl. Rev. Zool. 1844, p. 215. 



This Cuckoo is abundant all over the Central region, and 

 also occurs, though sparingly, in the Atlantic coast-region. 



The habits of this curious bird, especially in the way it runs, 

 remind one much of the large lizard commonly known in Gua- 

 temala as the " Iguana." It passes rapidly across the road, as 

 that reptile does, first peering out of the underwood before 

 making a rush, and now and then stopping, just before diving 

 in again, to take a final survey. The bird is by no means shy, 

 often remaining quite still by the side of a path, looking at you 



