List of Costa-Rica Birds. 31 i 



omitted which might have been added to the number. My pre- 

 sent object is rather to correct the errors for which I am respon- 

 sible, the specimens being now before me. At the same time 1 

 shall take the opportunity of adding remarks on other species, 

 either in confirmation of Mr. Lawrence's views or the reverse, 

 and thus trust 1 shall render his most useful Catalogue more 

 complete than it stands at present. 



I believe nearly the whole sei'ies of bird-skins contained in the 

 Smithsonian Institution were collected in the line of country 

 which stretches from the Gulf of Nicoya on the Pacific, across 

 the tablelands surrounding San Jose and Cartago, and thence 

 towards the Atlantic as far as Angostura and Tucurriqui in the 

 valley of the Reventazon. Collections were also made in the 

 Dota Mountains to the southward of this line ; and the Volcano 

 of Yrazu (or Cartago, as it is as frequently called) was also visited, 

 Mr. Lawrence has not defined the limits of the country the 

 birds of which he catalogues, and leaves the south-eastern 

 boundary in some obscurity, as he includes the species collected 

 by Warszewiez in his journey from Chiriqui to Boca del Toro, 

 but leaves out those obtained at Chiriqui by Bridges and Mr. 

 Hicks. The political territory of Costa Rica does not by itself 

 form a natural zoological subdivision of the fauna of Central 

 America ; but by extending its limits northwards as far as the 

 Lake of Nicaragua and the River San Juan, or perhaps further, 

 and southwards so as to include the Isthmus of Panama, and 

 perhaps that of Darien, we arrive at a section of the great Cen- 

 tral-American Isthmus which contains a bird-fauna sufficiently 

 peculiar to be treated as a well-defined subdivision of the bird- 

 fauna of the whole country extending from Southern Mexico to 

 the Isthmus of Darien. But for the present I will confine my 

 notes, as Mr. Lawrence has done, to the birds of the State of 

 Costa Rica, leaving a general view of the relationship of its 

 birds for more special consideration. 



Mr. Lawrence's catalogue comprises the " Land-birds " only ; 

 and he prefaces his list by enumerating the birds which have 

 occurred in the districts adjoining Costa Rica, and which may 

 therefore be found to frequent the country he has investigated. 

 It does not follow of necessity that any of these birds are 



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