HADEOSTOMTJS. 123 



deep black to grey, and even to chestnut, as in a specimen before us from Vera Cruz 

 the crown is but a few shades darker than the back. The bill also varies greatly in 

 size. Our specimen with the largest bill is from the island of Cozumel, but this is 

 almost matched by others from Yucatan. 



Regarding the names applied to this bird, H. aglaice, the oldest, seems applicable to 

 the Jalapa, form, in which the back is slightly tinged with grey. The type appears 

 from the description to have been somewhat immature, as in the adult the nape and 

 rump cannot be said to be slightly rufescent, Platypsaris affinis of Elliot is probably 

 strictly congeneric with H. aglaice. H. latirostris of Bonaparte was applied to a 

 Nicaraguan individual without a rosy throat, a character which we believe to be 

 strictly individual, as we find it represented in birds associated with numbers of the 

 ordinary type and intermediate examples occur connecting the two. H. albiventris 

 was applied to the bird of Western Mexico, and with them Mr. Ridgway has recently 

 associated the pale birds of Northern Yucatan. The distribution thus indicated for 

 H. albiventris is so completely severed by a wide tract of country occupied by darker 

 forms, that we are convinced that the similarity of the birds of the divided districts is 

 not due to relationship but to some local cause acting so as to produce a similar effect, 

 and we are further inclined to attribute the existence of dark and intermediate forms to 

 a difference of climate and greater rainfall and density of vegetation. The various forms 

 in which this bird presents itself are not sufficiently pronounced to enable us to define 

 them with certainty and attach to them specific names. We may add that we have before 

 us upwards of 150 specimens from nearly all the localities mentioned above. It is right, 

 however, to quote here Sumichrast's opinion on the varieties of this bird, which is as 

 follows ^ : — " I am led to believe that there are two varieties of this bird in the State of 

 Vera Cruz. The one, especially found in the hot and temperate regions, of stouter pro- 

 portions, and in the adult male at least with darker plumage, &c. The other, which I 

 have met with several times in the Alpine region, is appreciably inferior in size to the 

 preceding,"and with lighter tints in the adult male. It is possible that to the latter 

 variety the name of P. affinis has been given." 



In all parts of our region the range in altitude of this species is very considerable, 

 and extends from the sea-level to an altitude of at least 8000 feet. In the Tres Marias, 

 Grayson ^^ found it only in the thick woods, where it is seen searching for insects, some- 

 times darting after them when on the wing, at other times looking for them amongst 

 the leaves and branches, not unlike the Warblers. Its notes are feeble and but seldom 

 uttered, and its habits are solitary. This island bird has been separated by Mr. Ridg- 

 way as Platypsaris insularis. Mr. Robert Owen ^ found a nest of this bird on 15th May, 

 1860, at Chuacus in Guatemala, and sent us the female, its nest, and two eggs. The nest 

 was entirely composed of tendrils, strips of bark, and grass, so as to form a hanging nest 

 open at the top and about two inches deep. It was built between and hung from the 

 forked branch of a sapling at the foot of a mountain. The egg is white, beautifully 



16* 



