18!)7.] MR. O. SALVIN ON TIIK DIUDS OF VERAGUA. 129 



Yar. 2. Sponge slender, with a few distant angular brandies, pale 

 purplish red. 



Hab. Borneo? (I80I, Capt. Sir E. Belcher). B.M. 



The two varieties were purchased at the same time, in Stevens's 

 sale-room, in 1852. They present just the same differences in colour 

 as are to be observed in different specimens of Melohesice and Coral- 

 lince ; and there is no doubt that the purplish-red specimen will 

 become white by exposure. 



8. On some Collections of Birds from Veragua. 

 By OsBERT Salyix, M.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



(Plate XIV.) 



The three collections of birds which form the materials for the 

 present paper were collected at three different localities in Veragua, 

 by Enrique Arce, a native of Guatemala, who formerly worked for 

 INIr. Godman and myself when travelling in the latter country. 

 Having become proficient in bird-collecting, he vmdertook to go to 

 Costa Rica, where he remained some months ; he then proceeded to 

 Panama, and thence to the ground where these collections were made. 

 The first and largest was from a village called Santa Fe, which Arce 

 describes as situated twelve leagues on the Panama side of Santiago, 

 the capital of Veragua ; the next was from the neighbourhood of 

 Santiago itself; and the third from a district beyond Santiago, which 

 Arce calls the " Cordillera de Tole." Neither this district nor Santa 

 Fc are marked in any map that I have seen. All three localities would 

 seem to enjoy a "tlerra templada," or cool mountain-cliin^te, in their 

 vicinity; and the presence of a Dipper (Cinclus) in the last named 

 indicates that our traveller reached a considerable elevation. The 

 collection also contains many birds which are found only in the low- 

 lands, showing that Arce also visited the hot forests of low elevation. 



Before proceeding to enumerate the species contained in these col- 

 lections, I will shortly mention the notices that have been published 

 from time to time of the birds of this section of Central America, 

 viz. that which is included between the political frontier of Costa 

 Bica and the Panama Railway. 



The first notice which I can find referring to the birds of Veragua 

 is in the ' Proceedings' of this Society for the year 1850, jd. 92, where 

 Mr, Gould describes Cephalopterus glahricoUis from a specimen 

 obtained by the botanical traveller M. Warszewicz in the Cordillera 

 of Chifiqui. In a subsequent paper, published in the same year 

 (p. 162), six new species of TrochilidcB {Selasjihorus scintilla, Thuu- 

 viatias chionurus, Thalurania venusta, Sapphironia aeruleoyxdarisy 

 Erythronota niveovenfris, and Trochilus ( — ?) castaneoi'entris) were 

 described by the same gentleman from specimens furnished by M. 

 AVarszewicz, and collected between David and the Chiriqui Lagoon. 

 A seventh species from the same collection was also described by 



Proc. Zool. Soc.~18G7, No. IX. 



