1 66 Elliot on the Genus Dendrornis. [April 



the bill, which is the main distinction, varies considerably among 

 the different species, some being much more slender and compar- 

 atively longer than others, almost in some instances verging upon 

 Plcolaptes. The third and fourth quills are equal and longest 

 (rather than fourth quill longest as given by Eyton), and in this 

 respect resemble the species of other genera of the family. I do 

 not think it is possible to define any characters that will serve to 

 absolutely distinguish the members of Dendrornis from their re- 

 latives, and yet when the general stoutness of the bill together 

 with the usual pattern of markings are considered together, the 

 birds form a tolerably recognizable group. Reichenbach in his 

 'Handb. Spec. Ornith.,' p. 1S6, proposed for D. guttata the gen- 

 eric term Premnocoptis. This however had already been em- 

 ployed by Cabanis for another group of birds. 



Geographical Distribution. 



The members of the genus Dendrornis are dwellers of the 

 Neotropical Region, their most northern habitat being the Mexi- 

 can Sub-region. Here, in the vicinity of Mazatlan on the west and 

 Tampico on the east, we find the D.jlavigaster, which extends its 

 range into Central America as far as the confines of Costa Rica, 

 and D. erythropygia ranging from Jalapa through Central 

 America, and as far south as Ecuador. D. lacrymosa goes from 

 Costa Rica through the Isthmus of Panama into Colombia. D. 

 punctigula is, so far as known, restricted to Costa Rica and Col- 

 ombia, not being a native of Panama, but represented there by D. 

 erythropygia, a singular distribution, and not easily accounted 

 for. D. nana ranges from Honduras into Colombia. Colombia 

 (Colombian Sub-region), beside the species already given, con- 

 tains D. rostripallens, which extends into Ecuador and is also 

 found at Matto Grosso, Brazil, on the borders of Bolivia, possibly 

 being a native also of that country ; and D. guttatoides, also 

 stated to be a native of British Guiana and Cayenne (Amazonian 

 Sub-region), but not as yet found in Venezuela. Tobago and 

 Trinidad contain D. susurrans, also met with in Venezuela and 

 at Santarem, Brazil, in the Amazonian Sub-region. Guiana also 

 contains D. polysticta, D. pardalotus, not found elsewhere, and, 

 according to Sclater, also D. multigutatta, Brazil possesses a 

 large number of these birds. In the Amazonian Sub-region we 



