230 LTT'K HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Thore are no eggs of tins species in the United States National Mnsenm 

 collection, and I have been nnable to tind a description or measnrements of 

 the same; but they undoubtedly resemble those of our smaller Hummers very 

 closely. 



Family COTINGID^. Cotingas. 

 84. Platypsaris albiventris (Lawrence). 



XANTUS'S BECARD. 



Uailrontowus alhircnfris LAWRENCE, Annals Lyceum, New York, VIII, 1807, 475. 

 riatypsdiis (ilhircidris KiDGWAV, .Manual of North American Birds, 1SS7, .325. 



(B — , C — , R — , C — , IT 441.1) 



Geographical range: Western and southern Mexico; south to Yucatan. Casually 

 north to the southern border of the United States in southern Arizona. 



Xantus's Becard, the only representative of tliis family in the United States, 

 claims a. place in our fixuna from the fact that a single specimen, an adult male, 

 was taken I)}' ^Ir. W. W. Price in southern Arizona, close to the Sonora line. Mr. 

 Price makes the following remarks on this subject: 



"On June 20, 1888, I secured an adult male, in breeding plumage, of this 

 species, in the pine forests of the Huaclmca Mountains, at an elevation of about 

 7, .500 feet, and 7 miles north of the Mexican boundary. (See Ridgway's ' Manual 

 of Nortli American Birds,' p. 325.) I am certain there were a pair of these birds, 

 as I licard their very peculiar notes in different places at the same time; but the 

 locality being so extremely rough and broken, I only secui-ed the one above 

 recorded. Several times while collecting at high altitudes I have heard bird 

 notes that I thought were these, but they were always on almost inaccessible 

 mountain sides. Their note reminds one of the song of Stephens's Vireo ( Virco 

 hntioni stephensi), Init is not so long continued and is harsher. From observ- 

 iuff the actions of the bird I killed, I am sure its mate was in the vicinity, and 

 probably nesting, although I have since carefully searched the place without suc' 

 cess. This species will doubtless be found breeding in Arizona, as was Trogon 



From the fnct that no other specimens of this species have been taken in 

 that vicinity, which has since then been visited by several good collectors, I am 

 inclined to believe that this bird can only be considered as a very rare summer 

 visitor in southern Arizona. The late CoL A. J. Grayson met with this species 

 at Mazatlan, where he obtained a male in February, and Mr. J. Xantus also found 

 it on the plains of Colima, Mexico. 



Messrs. Salvin and Godman do not recognize this as a good species, and 

 phice it under the older name of Iludrostomus af/lnks (Lafresnaye), stating how- 

 evei-: "This species, taken as a whole, is subject to a great amount of variation, 

 not only as regards the intensity of the color of the hack and under surface, but 



' The Auk, Vol. V, 1888, p. 425. 



