Museumn of the United States. 325 



alcyon) of tins family which certainly has only three. Swain- 

 son's bird came from the " Conocou Mountains of Demerara/' 

 B. goeringi is from Venezuela. On the whole, I think B. 

 goeringi had better be allowed to stand as the name of the 

 Venezuelan bird. 



LOPHOSTRIX CRISTATA (Daud.) . 



In Vassar College there is a specimen of this Owl, col- 

 lected by Professor Orton near Mindo, on the western slope 

 of the volcano of Pichincha, Ecuador, at an elevation of about 

 6000 or 7000 feet above the level of the sea. So far as I 

 can see, the distinctions by which the Central American race 

 of this genus, L. stricklandi, may be recognized from the more 

 southern bird are quite stable. 



AcciPiTER NiGROPLUMBEUs, Ann. Lyc. N. Y. ix. p. 270. 



I carefully examined the type of this Sparrowhawk in the 

 Vassar-College Museum. The skin appears to belong to a very 

 old male, and differs from all the small South- American Spar- 

 rowhawks that I have seen, in the almost entire uniformity of 

 its dark plumbeous colour. On the lower abdomen, however, 

 deep rufous feathers are intermingled, which makes me suspect 

 that in this bird we have a very extreme form of the more 

 northern A. ventralis. As we possess a skin (that of a male) 

 from Ecuador which has the underparts deep rufous, I 

 doubt if the plumbeous colour of the bird described by Mr. 

 Lawrence represents the normal coloration of the Ecuadorean 

 bird. 



The limits of the variation of colour under which the bird 

 called A. ventralis presents itself are difficult to trace ; and as 

 yet I have not seen a sufficient number of specimens to be 

 able to form very decided opinions on the subject. Mr. 

 Sharpe (Cat. of Birds, i. p. 147) places A. nigroplumbeus as a 

 synonym of A. ventralis without hesitation. Under our pre- 

 sent knowledge of the bird, at least a query is wanted. 



Penelope ortoni, sp. n. 



A single specimen of a Pewe/o/?e in the Vassar-College Mu- 

 seum is labelled P.greeyi. It appears, however, to be distinct 

 from that species, and may be characterized as follows : — 



