230 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



There are no eggs of this species in the United States National Mnseum 

 collection, and I have been nnable to find a description or measurements of 

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

 closely. 



Family C0TINGIDJ5. Cotingas. 

 84. Platypsaris albiventris (Lawrence). 



XANTUS'S BECAED. 



Badrostomus alhiventrin Lawrence, Annals Lyceum, New York, VIII, 1867, 475. 

 Platypsaris albiventris Ridgway, Manual of North American Birds, 1887, 325. 

 (B —, C —, R —, —, U 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 this family in the United States, 

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

 was taken by Mr. 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 Huachuca Mountains, at an elevation of about 

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

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

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

 locality being so extremely rough and broken, I only secured 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 ( Vireo 

 huttoni stephensi), but is not so long continued and is harsher. From observ- 

 ing 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 

 ambiguus."^ 



From the fact 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 

 place it under the older name of Hadrostomus aglaice (Lafresnaye), stating how- 

 ever: "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 back and under surface, but 



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



