DENDRCECA CHRYSOPARIA. 



(The Yellow-cheeked Warbler.) 

 By OSBERT SALVIN, M.A., F.R.S. 



The only time that I met with this bird was during my first visit to 

 Vera Paz, in Guatemala, in 1859. I was riding to Coban, the chief town 

 of Alta Vera Paz, on the 4th of November, and had just surmounted 

 one of the ridges of the mountainous road that leads to the village of Tactic, 

 where I intended passing the night, when two birds attracted my attention, 

 and I secured both. They, on examination at home, proved to belong to an 

 undescribed species ; and the name of Dendrceca clwysoparia was bestowed 

 upon it by Mr. Sclater and myself. 



The altitude above the sea where I shot these birds is about 4500 feet, 

 or a little more ; and the district belongs to that termed Alta Vera Paz, in 

 contradistinction to the rest of the Province, most of which lies at a lower 

 elevation. This portion of the country is a very wet one, the rainy season 

 being of much longer duration than in the district lying further to the south- 

 ward. The line of demarkation between this region of excessive wet and 

 the ordinary climate of Guatemala is very well defined — so much so, that the 

 line is passed in an hour's ride. It v^^as just about this boundary that I met 

 with Dendrceca chrysoparia. The birds were, after the manner of their con- 

 geners, hopping about the lower branches of the forest trees, which are 

 there not very high. But I was too intent upon securing the specimens to 

 observe much of their movements and habits. 



A few years after this (in 1863-64) Mr. H. E. Dresser, during his stay 

 in Texas, obtained a single specimen of Dendrceca chrysoparia. He did not 



