240 COTINGIDiE. 



C. amaUlis, belongs to this species, which was fully characterized by Mr. Ridgway ia 

 1887 from an adult male sent him by Mr. Zeledon from Pozo Azul in Costa Rica. 

 Mr. Sclater, in his recent Catalogue, doubted its distinctness from C. amabilis, but we 

 think there can be no question on the subject ; the several points of distinction referred 

 to above and also by Mr. Ridgway are quite sufficient to determine its status as an 



excellent species. 



Its occurrence on the line of the Panama Railway is probable, but requires confir- 

 mation ; its extension further southwards rests on the authority of a skin of Bogota 

 make in the National Museum at Washington, which also should be re-examined, as we 

 believe it will prove to be the allied species C. natter eri, Boiss.* 



CARPODECTES. 



Carpodectes, Salv. P. Z. S. 1864, p. 583 ; Scl. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xiv. p. 389. 



This peculiar genus, remarkable for the nearly pure white plumage of the males, con- 

 tains only two species, both of them found in Costa Rica — one on the eastern side of 

 the Cordillera and extending northwards into Nicaragua, the other on the western side. 



The bill in Carpodectes is stronger and more compressed than in Cotinga, and the 

 culmeu more arched; the nostrils are open and fully exposed. The rictal bristles 

 appear to be altogether absent or at least very small. The wings are normal, none of 

 the quills being narrowed or shortened out of order ; the fourth quill is the longest, 

 the second, third, and fifth a little shorter and equal, first=seventh. The tail is short 

 and nearly even, the upper coverts covering less than half the rectrices. 



'Compared with Ampelio, Carpodectes has a stouter, more compressed bill, vrith a 

 more arched culmen. The rictal bristles in Ampelio are much more evident, the wings 

 shorter and the tail longer. In addition to these differences the great diversity in colour 

 is very obvious. 



1. Carpodectes nitidus. (Tab. XLll., <s i .) 



Carpodectes nitidus, Salv. P.Z. S. 1864, p. 583, t. 36'; Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. viii. p. 184'; ix. 

 p. 117'; V. Frantz. J. f. Orn. 1869, p. 310*; Boucard, P.Z. S. 1878, p. 65 '; Ridgw. Pr. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus. i. p. 255 = ; Scl. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xiv. p. 389 \ 



Albus plumbeo yix tinctus ; capitis lateribus, alis et corpore subtus fere pure albis : rostro plumbeo, pedibus 

 nigris. Long, tota 8-0, ate 5'5, caudae 2'7, rostii a rictu 0'95, tarsi 1*0. (Descr. exempl. typ. ex Tucur- 

 riqui, Costa Eica. Mus. nostr.) 

 5 supra saturate grisea ; fronte, capitis lateribus et gula albican tioribus, oculorum ambitu albo ; alis nigris, 



* Of C nattereri, Boiss. (Eev. Zool. 1840, p. 2), there is a single adult male specimen in the British Museum. 

 It is the bird marked c under the name of C. ridgwayi of Mr. Sclater's Catalogue (vol. xiv. p. 384). It differs 

 from the true C ridgwayi in having the bases of the purple feathers of the throat and abdomen dusky, with 

 a black band dividing that colour from the blue extremity, whereas in the allied species this median band is 

 white. The first and second primaries are rather wider and longer in C. nattereri than in G. ridgwayi, and 

 the fifth instead of the fourth is the longest in the wing. 



