Letters, Announcements, S^c. 99 



cannot be used for P. minor, for whicli the proper generic ap- 

 pellation appears to be Taclnjhaptus of Reichenbacli. 



P. L. SCLATER. 



News of Mr. Salvin. 



Our Editor, at the date of the last communication with 

 which he has favoured his unworthy substitute (October 12), 

 was at Antigua, Guatemala. He writes as follows : — 



" I got a prize the other day from the Volcan de Fuego, in 

 the shape of two pairs of that beautiful little Pigeon Peristera 

 mondetoura ! As the species occurs in Mexico and Costa Rica 

 it was to be expected in Guatemala ; but where to look for it 

 I had no notion. It proves to be a highland species, as these 

 birds were shot near C aid eras, on the Volcan de Fuego, be- 

 tween 7000 and 8000 feet above the sea. The common P. 

 cinerea is found in the lowlands and in Guatemala on both 

 sides of the mountains. I am not sure that these Central- 

 American birds will not prove to be slightly different from 

 the more northern race. The deep vinous colouring of the 

 underparts in the former is confined to the pectoral region, 

 whereas in the latter it appears to spread more over the ab- 

 domen. But I hardly know enough of the southern bird to 

 feel very confident on the subject. There is a specimen in 

 the gallery of the British Museum (said to be from Columbia) 

 which has the underparts more overspread with vinous than 

 a Mexican specimen ( Jalapa) which we have. The Columbian 

 bird agrees with Bonaparte^s plate in the "^Icon. des Pig.' 

 The specimens I now have are like the Mexican birds. Any- 

 how the difference is slight ; and I should think less of it did 

 not the bird prove an upland species. The range is curious ; 

 I can only compare it with that of Bolborhynchus lineolatus. 



'^Another new bird to Guatemala I obtained yesterday, in 

 Vireo huttoni, found in Mexico, but never before here. 



" Yesterday, too, brought me a specimen of our Lophostrix 

 stricklandi ; an Indian shot it near Escuintla, i. e. in hot 

 country. From the highlands I have Psaltriparus melanotis 

 at last, and quite a number of Cardellina rubifrons. Of all 



