FAMILY CAPITONIDAE 503 



he was able to examine held 4 eggs, another 5 eggs, in color white. 

 Male and female covered the eggs alternately during the day. Both 

 slept in the nest hole at night, and continued this after the eggs had 

 hatched. The young were fed on small insects at first, but as they 

 grew older the food was mainly berries and fruit pulp. On hatching 

 the young were completely naked. 



In Costa Rica these birds are called cacareon or gallinita from their 

 calls which suggest those of the domestic fowl. Another name, of 

 less certain derivation, is cocora. 



The generic name for this interesting bird has been subject to 

 argument. It was described originally by Sclater in the genus 

 Tetragonops, which included also the larger species ramphastinus of 

 western Colombia and Ecuador. Richmond (Auk, 1899, p. 77) 

 pointed out that Tetragonops, proposed by Jardine (Edinburgh New 

 Phil. Journ., vol. 2, October, 1855, p. 404), was antedated by 

 Tetragonops Gerstacker (Monatsb. Akad. Berlin, February or March, 

 1855, p. 85) for a genus of Coleoptera. He, therefore, proposed the 

 name Pan to replace it. Pan, however, had been listed by Oken in 

 1816 in his Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte, volume 3 (Zoologie) for 

 a group of mammals. Richmond (Auk, 1900, p. 179) in accordance 

 with this named the bird genus Semnornis, which since has been the 

 current name. Oken's work, however, is of such a nature, and so 

 uncertain in its terminology, that after considerable discussion the 

 International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature in Opinion 

 417, in 1956, rejected its availability for nomenclatural purposes. 

 This action might seem to have made Pan, proposed by Richmond 

 in 1899, available for this group of birds, as suggested by Blake 

 (Fieldiana: Zool., vol. 36, 1958, p. 524). However, the status of 

 Pan Oken is under further discussion with the International Com- 

 mission; in view of this it seems appropriate to list the species in 

 Semnornis in accordance with current usage. 



The type specimen bears a printed label marked "Costa Rica (San 

 Jose) Dr. A. von Frantzius." To this is added in ink the collector's 

 number 83. Deignan (U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 221, 1961, pp. 205-206) 

 noted that this skin is entered in the museum catalog as from "San 

 Carlos," a point far distant to the north, toward Nicaragua. It 

 appears that this attribution may have been an error by the person 

 who made the catalog entry. The bird under discussion is listed 

 immediately after 4 specimens collected by Julian Carmiol at San 

 Carlos. The place name is written for the first of these, with ditto 

 marks for the next three. These marks then continue in unbroken 



