456 Mr. J. Gould on new Species of the Genus Kutoxeres. 
constant. The Quitan bird, like some of the Phaéthorni, is 
extremely variable in its markings: for instance, the tail, in 
some specimens, has the tips of the feathers white for nearly 
half an inch from the tip, in others for a quarter, in others, 
again, for an eighth; and I possess one in which the 
white tipping is absent, all the feathers being of a uniform 
olive-grey : but in no instance that I have seen does the white 
extend down the shaft as in H. aquila. On comparing the 
seven Quitan specimens with the Bogotan birds, I find that 
the striz on the breast are black and white in the former and 
black and buff in the latter. I shall designate the Quitan 
bird ZL. heterura, with the following description :— 
Upper mandible wholly black, under mandible yellow for 
two-thirds of its length from the base, the remainder olive- 
brown; crown of the head nearly black, each feather glossed 
with green at the tip; upper surface dull grass-green; tail 
olive-grey, in some instances tipped with sullied white; wings 
deep purplish black; under surface, from the throat to the 
vent, striated with black and buff, the buff becoming lighter 
on the centre of the abdomen ; under tail-coverts brown, varied 
with black. 
Total length 5 inches, bill 1, wing 2%, tail 21, tarsi 1. 
Hab, Ecuador. 
The Veraguan bird is much more nearly allied to the Eeua- 
dorian than the New-Granadian species, but possesses cha- 
racters differmg from both, and which, though slight, appear 
to be constant, none of the specimens I possess having the 
pure-white shafts of the New-Granadian H. aquila, or the 
uniformly-coloured tail of the Ecuadorian EH. heterura, but 
having all the tail-feathers tipped with white; it moreover 
assimilates to this bird in size, as it also does in the buff » 
colouring of the strie of the throat and breast. For this Vera- 
guan bird I propose the name of Hutoxeres Salvini, in com- 
pliment to a gentleman who assuredly deserves that a finer 
bird should bear his name; but as this species lives on that 
side of the Isthmus of Panama his labours whereon have 
been rewarded with such fruitful results, I embrace the first 
opportunity afforded me of testifying to the benefit he has 
conferred upon the branch of science to which we are both 
attached. It may be asked, and with some show of reason, if 
characterizing birds as distinct which present such trifling dif- 
ferences is not like splitting straws? to which I would answer, 
such differences not only exist but are as constant as the 
seasons which run their courses without variation, and it is 
well known to all who have studied the natural productions 
of the two Americas that their faunas, with but few excep- 
