FAMILY RAMPHASTIDAE 509 



the opinion that, except for the nesting period, the adult birds slept 

 in the open and not in holes. 



The country name currutaco, a dandy, presumably is given from the 

 smooth, green plumage, decorated with blue on the throat and chest- 

 nut on the tail. In Costa Rica these birds are known as curre or 

 curre verde. 



Gould, who described the nominate form, exhibited it with a 

 number of other toucans at a meeting of the Zoological Society of 

 London on April 11, 1853. He submitted his account to the Proceed- 

 ings of the Society, which have been cited usually as the place of 

 publication, but this was not issued until July 25, 1854. A duplicate 

 statement appeared without delay in the Zoologist for April 1853. In 

 this it is stated that "Mr. Gould took occasion to describe a very 

 singular addition to those previously known, conspicuously marked 

 by a patch of bright blue on the throat; it belongs to the genus 

 Aulacorhamphus and receives the name of A. caeruleogularis. It was 

 collected in Veragua by Mr. Seeman during the voyage of H. M. 

 Surveying Ship, Herald." As this antedates the account in the 

 proceedings of the Zoological Society of London by more than a 

 year, it is the place of original description. 



Griscom (Amer. Mus. Nov. no. 141, 1924, p. 2) with limited 

 material named a race tnaxillaris from Costa Rica, separated from 

 that of western Chiriqui and Veraguas mainly on the basis of a greater 

 extent of red at the base of the culmen. The numerous specimens 

 now available show that this supposed distinction does not hold. 

 Both stages are found in birds from Boquete, for example, so that 

 maxillaris must be listed as a synonym of nominate caeruleogularis. 



In this same account Griscom designated Cerro Flores in eastern 

 Chiriqui as the type locality of caeruleogularis. This, however, was 

 in error. As noted above, Gould stated that his type had been collected 

 by Seemann. Berthold Seemann, in a two-volume Narrative of the 

 Voyage of H.M.S. Herald During the Years 1845-51 Under the Com- 

 mand of Captain Henry Kellett, R.N.C.B., published in 1853, 

 describes a journey in western Panama in the latter part of 1846, 

 a second trip in the same area in early 1848, and finally a third in 

 the "canton of Alanje." In this latter journey he says that he con- 

 tinued to Boquete, "a farm situated on the extinct volcano of Chiriqui," 

 which, he added, he had visited also the previous year. Boquete is 

 the only section that he mentions where he was within the mountain 

 haunts of this toucanet, which locates the type locality as designated 

 above in the heading under the race caeruleogularis. 



