930 LIFE HISTOEIES OF NOETH AMEEICAN BIEDS. 



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

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

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

 closely. 



Family COTINGID^. Cotingas. 

 84. Platypsaris albiventris (Lawrence). 



XANTUS'S BECARD. 



Hadrostomus albiventris Lawrence, Annals Lyceum, New York, VIII, 1807, 475. 

 Platypsaris albiventris Bidgway, Manual of North American Birds, 1SS7, 325. 

 (B — , G — , E — , C — , U 441.1) 



Geographical kange: 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." 1 



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 Grodman do not recognize this as a good species, and 

 place it under the older name of Hadrostomus aglaics (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 



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



