iSqi.] Cherrie oil RhamfJiocclus costcjricensis. 63 



Habitat. — Pozo Azul, Cohl;i Ric;i. 



Types in the Costa Rica National Museum, numbers 2181 and 2182, 

 females collected in November, 1887, and numbers 3271, 3272, 3273 and 

 3274, two males, one female and one in which the sex is not indicated, 

 collected in September, 1889. The six examples were collected and pre- 

 sented to the Museum by Senor Don Jose C. Zeledon. 



The general coloration of this bird is very similar to that of the 

 females of RajnpJiocclus passcrinli^ but while in many of the 

 females of the latter species the breast and rump is brighter col- 

 ored, the color is of a rich golden yellowish olive not in any Wcty 

 resembling the ochraceous rufous of the present species ; neither 

 is the tail so dark, being dusky brownish black instead of clear 

 dusky black. The two are distinguishable at a glance. The 

 wing formula is also slightly different, as out of twenty-five ex- 

 amples of passerinii examined only one was found having the 

 first primary as long as the eighth ; while in the new species the 

 first primary is intermediate between the seventh and eighth. 



The bill is similar in form to that of R. passerinii^ but 

 there is no appreciable difference between that of the male and 

 that of the female. It is on this character, — the form of the 

 bill, with '-peculiar enlargement of the naked base of the lower 

 mandible" — together with the general resemblance in pattern of 

 coloration, so similar to that of the females of R. passerinii, 

 that I have been led to refer the species to the genus Ramphoce- 

 liis. I am informed by Mr. Zeledon that it has exactly the same 

 habits and call-notes. In the sexes being alike, one of the char- 

 acters hitherto held as common to the genus is destroyed. But 

 the iorm of the bill, together with the pattern of coloration, seems 

 to me to exclude it from the genus PhlogotJira?ipis, in which 

 the sexes are alike. The only points • in which it agrees 

 with that genus are the similarity of the sexes and the first 

 primary being intermediate between the seventh and eighth. In 

 the nine specimens of P. sangitinolenta in the collection I find 

 that eight have the first primary intermetliate between the sev- 

 enth and eighth, and in the other example the remiges are not 

 fully grown. But this latter character may be shared by some 

 other members of the genus Ramphocelus ; not having speci- 

 mens for examination I am unable to say. 



R. passerinii is slightly the smaller, the average measurements 

 of twenty specimens from the collection, ten males and ten fe- 



