468 Letters, Extracts from Currespondence, Notices, ^t. 



more of this subject another time. This expedition did not 

 result in much ; but I see my way to some interesting facts 

 respecting the elevation of the different species, especially the 

 Humming-birds. Leaving the plains of Duefias, the first fresh 

 species I came upon were Delattria viridipallens and Petasophora 

 thalassina ; next, Selasphorus heloisa> ; and lastly, Lamprulcema 

 rhami. I also took a nest with three eggs of Icterus wagleri. 

 The structure, though of the same character — a hanging nest — 

 is very different from that of /. giilaris, the common species on 

 the Yzabal road. The nest, which I now have, has none of the 

 depth of the other, but is comparatively shallow. Talking of 

 nests, a day or two ago I found two of Spcrmophila moreleti, 

 and took one rotten dried-up egg from one with a young one 

 in it. Nothing could be more different than this nest and that 

 of S. bicolor, well described by A. Newton {antea, p. 147). That 

 of S. moreleti, instead of the loose domed structure of S. bicolor 

 with a large side-entrance composed entirely of one material, is 

 one of the neatest nests you ever saw — a beautiful, open, trans- 

 parent nest, composed of fine roots and fibres, and lined with 

 horse-hair. It is not placed resting on a branch, but is sus- 

 pended, like a Reed Warbler's {Salicaria anindinacea), by several 

 small twigs. Something serious must be done about this — even 

 to the making of a new genus, if it be not already done. The 

 egg, too, differs materially. With these facts, it would be almost 

 like putting Myiozetetes texensis with the genus Tyrannm, to 

 keep S. moreleti with S. bicolor *. 



"In Mammals I have done but little as yet — only three 

 squirrels and a young rabbit. I cannot get the Indians to bring 

 any : they are an apathetic race, and embrace a new idea with 

 great difficulty ; yet I do not desjjair of getting them to search, for 

 me, some day. Of cold-blooded Vertebrates (tell Dr. Giinther) 

 I have two species of frogs, a toad, one snake, and some small 

 freshwater fishes. Excepting the birds, I have neglected sadly 

 to collect ; but my time has been very much occupied these last 

 three weeks in making a boat for a long-meditated expedition 

 to the Lake of Atitlan, where W and I purpose going the 



* Spermophila bicolor properly belongs to the genus Phomparu, anil is 

 more nearly allied to Spiza, — Ed. 



