SERPHOPHAGA. — MIONECTES. 21 



distinguishing it from S. cinerea all break down ; for the vertical feathers of the head 

 of some of our northern specimens have vphite at their bases, just as in southern ones ; 

 the wing-coverts are tipped with dusky white, and the under surfaces of the two forms 

 are not to be distinguished in colour. 



Serphophaga cinerea was described in 1844 by Strickland from a specimen said to 

 have come from Chili i, probably a wrong locality ; but the species has a wide range 

 throughout the Andes from Bolivia northwards to the valley of the Cauca. Missing 

 the Isthmus of Panama, it reappears in the more mountainous parts of that State and 

 in Costa Rica. It frequents the highland forests up to an elevation of 5000 and 

 10,000 feet, for Tschudi records it from the Sierra de Tarma (10,000 feet), Fraser from 

 Cuenca (8200 feet), and Salmon from Envigado (5500 feet), but it is also found, 

 according to Jelski and Stolzmann, at a low level in the environs of Lima ^. 



Its habit of living near running streams has been recorded by several travellers. 

 Fraser speaks of it as hopping from stone to stone in the Gualaquiza river, and 

 Boucard, who observed it at Narahjo in Costa Eica, says it lives along the streams and 

 sits on the stones lying in or near the water just in the manner of Sayomis aquatica. 

 Stolzmann also speaks of its having the same habits in Peru. The last-named traveller 

 found its nest towards the end of June attached to the extremity of a bough, to which 

 it was suspended over the surface of the water. The nest was composed almost 

 exclusively of moss and lined with feathers, and fixed by its lower surface to the 

 branch. Salmon also found its nest, which he does not describe, but says the eggs are 

 creamy white '^ . 



MIONECTES. 



Mionectes, Cabanis in Tschudi^s Fauna Per. p. 147 (1845) (type Muscicapa straticollis, d'Orb. 

 & Lafr.) ; Scl. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xiv. p. 111. 



Mionectes is the first of our genera which is placed in the " Elaineinse " by Mr. 

 Sclater, but the rictal bristles, though shorter than in most of the " Platyrhynchinse," 

 are quite obvious, and the structure of the bill is similar to that of the genera we have 

 just discussed. 



The genus itself is a neotropical one spread over the greater part of South America 

 as far as South Brazil on the one hand and Southern Mexico on the other. Of the 

 two sections into which the four species of Mionectes are now divided, M. olivaceus 

 reaches Costa Rica and M. oleagineus Southern Mexico, both being also found in the 

 southern continent. 



The general plumage of the members of Mionectes is olivaceous, with the abdomen 

 either yellowish or cinnamon. The bill of M. olivaceus is rather elongated and com- 

 pressed, the sides converging gradually to the tip, the width at the gape being 

 considerably less than half the length of the tomia, the culmen is nearly straight for 

 the greater part of its length and then curves abruptly to the tip ; the nostrils are open, 



