DENDROCOLAPTES. 191 



We know very little of this species in Guatemala, and the two specimens, one from 

 Tactic and one from San Geronimo, which served as the types are the only ones we 

 have seen from that country. They were both shot at an elevation of about 4500 feet 

 above the sea, the San Geronimo bird in the pine-woods covering the hills skirting the 

 plain of Salama, and the Tactic bird in the hilty country of Alta Vera Paz, also 

 covered at intervals with pine-forest. 



2. Dendrocolaptes validus. 



Dendrocolaptes validus, Tsch. Fauna Per. p. 242, t. 21. f. 2 ' ; Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 184 ' ; 



1879, p. 523'; Scl. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xv. p. 172*. 

 Dendrocolaptes muUistrigatus, Eyton, Contr. Orn. 1851, p. 75'; Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ix. 



pp. 106, 146 '; Prautz. J. f. Orn. 1869, p. 305". 

 Dendrocolaptes puncticollis, Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ix. p. 146 (nee Scl. & Salv.)"; Boucard, 



P. Z. S. 1878, p. 60' ; Ridgw. Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. xi. p. 545 ". 



D. puncticoTli similis, sed abdomine toto usque ad pectus transversim nigro distinote striate ; striis pectoralibus 

 utrinque nigro irregulariter marginatis distinguendus. Long, tota 11-0, alse 5-0, caudae 4*5, rostri a rictu 

 1-4, tarsi 1"1. (Descr. feminae ex Naranjo, Costa Eica. Mus. Boucard.) 



Hah. Costa Eica, Navarro (J. Cooper^'' '^% Naranjo [Boucard^); Panama {mus. 

 nostr. ^). — Colombia ^ ; Ecuadoe ; E. Peru ^ ; Venezuela ^ and Upper Amazons^. 



Through M. Boucard's kindness we have been able to examine one of the specimens 

 of this Dendrocolaptes obtained by him at Naranjo in Costa Eica during his expedition 

 to that country in 1877. We find that it agrees fairly with a specimen in our collection, 

 said to be from Panama, which Mr. Sclater in his Catalogue decided to belong to the 

 South-American D. validus of Tschudi ; the latter, however, is rather more rufescent 

 in the general tint of its plumage. The Costa Eica bird has been called D. muUi- 

 strigatus, Eyton ^ (now proved to be a synonym of B. validus), and subsequently 

 referred to the GxiaXemaXain B. puncticollis^, but we cannot find that specimens from the 

 two countries have been compared. 



Compared with the last-named bird, B. validus presents several points of difference, 

 to which attention is drawn above. B. validus, however, varies considerably both in 

 the clearness of its markings and the intensity of its colour, but we doubt the possibility 

 of our being able to distinguish any definite races of the species as a whole. The 

 Central-American birds agree very closely with a Venezuelan specimen in our collection 

 and are hardly so strongly marked as examples from other places. 



Salmon, who found a nest of this species, describes it as placed in a hole in a tree, 

 and the eggs as white and two in number ^- The birds shot by M. Boucard were busy 

 with their nest in a hole in a tree ^. 



