10 ASIONID^. 



latis : rostro clare fulvo ; digitis nudis, cameis, unguibus nigris. Long, tota circa 16"0, alae 12'5, 

 caudae 7"3, tarsi 2"2. (Deser. exempl. ex Guatemala. Mus. nostr.) 



Hab. Guatemala (Constancia^), near Antigua Guatemala [Constancia^), Cahabon 

 {Skinner ^ ^), Duenas, Volcan de Fuego {0. S. & F. D. 0.), Volcan de Tacana 

 {W. B. Richardson). 



Guatemala specimens of this Syrnium in our collection were first described in 1868, 

 but examples had long previously been sent to Europe from that country. Besides 

 the specimen in the Norwich Museum from Cahabon mentioned in the first list of 

 Guatemala birds ^, one was sent to Strickland by Constancia from the same country in 

 1845, and is now in the Cambridge Museum^. It is nowhere abundant in Guatemala, 

 though examples were brought in from time to time during our stay there, mostly from 

 the wooded slopes of the Volcan de Fuego, from altitudes between 7000 and 8000 feet 

 above the sea. The last specimen that reached us was from Mr. Richardson, who shot 

 it on the Volcan de Tacana, just on the frontier of the Mexican State of Chiapas. 

 The bird no doubt occurs in that State, but not perhaps beyond the Isthmus of 

 Tehuantepec *. 



S.fulvescens can readily be distinguished from its northern allies, S. sartorii and 

 S. nehdosum, by its smaller size and by the rich tawny-brown tint of its plumage, and 

 by the toes being naked except just at the base. As a species it seems quite distinct, 

 though treated as a subspecies by some American authors^. We have never seen a bird 

 showing a trace of intermediate characters between it and 8. sartorii. 



The iris in life is dark and the toes yellow. 



3. Syrnium occidentale. 



Syrnium occidentale, Xantus, Pr. Ac. Phil. 1859, p. 193 ' ; Baird, Birds N. Am., Atl. p. v, t. GQ ' ; 

 Ridgw. in Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. Birds, iii. p. 38 ' ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. 

 ii. p. 260'; Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, i. p. 343 = ; Fisher, Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. 

 no. 3, p. 156 \ 



Supra fusoo-brunneum, albo fasciatum et maculatum ; facie griseo-albida, indistincte fusco fasciata : subtus 

 fusco-brunneum, undique albo fasciatum et guttatum ; plumis abdominia singulis raaculis magnis tribus 

 utrinque albis ad rhachidem approximantibus, baud attingenfcibus ; alis fuscis, sordide albo faseiatis; cauda 

 fusca, septies albido anguste transfasciata ; digitis plumosis. Long, tota circa 1 6'5, alse 12-0, caudse 8-0 

 tarsi 2-2. (Deser. maris ex " Big Trees," California. Mus. nostr.) 



Hab. North Ameeica, California ^^^ New Mexico^, Arizona s, &c. — Mexico {Mus. 

 Brit.^), Guanajuato {fide Bendire^). 



Syrnium occidentale can be readily distinguished from S. nebulosum and its allies 

 by the lower part of the under surface being barred transversely instead of longitu- 



* A specimen in the Norwich Museum is said to be from Mexico. It was obtained from Gould, who most 

 likely received it from Skinner, and therefore from Guatemala. 



