.CERCOMACKA. 215. 



(Arcs'), Angostura (Carmiol ^% Pacuare, Pozo Azul de Pirris, Jimenez {ZeUdon ^% 

 San Carlos {Boucard i*) ; Panama, Bugaba ", Mina de Chorea ^\ Santa Fe ^^ (Arce), 

 Lion Hill {M'Leannan^'^^^^), Panama {A. H. Markham^^), Chepp (Arce).— 

 Colombia 1^; Ecu ADOE 5; Peeui^; Guiana s, . j 



Mr. Sclater first described this species in 1855 as aPi/riglena from Bogota trade skins 

 in the British Museum i, and a few years later it was discovered in Mexico * and Guate- 

 mala ^, and afterwards in the State of Panama ^^ and in Costa Eica ^^. It is now known 

 as a common bird in the low-lying hot forest districts of Central America on the eastern 

 side of the mountain-range northwards of Costa Eica, and from there to the mainland 

 of South America on both sides of the Cordillera. 



A little variation is to be traced between birds selected out of the series before us, 

 but the differences do not seem to Idb localized. One of the darkest birds is from Santa 

 Fe, in the State of Panama ; others from the line of Eailway being paler, like the 

 Mexican, Guatemalan, and Guianan birds. 



The synonyms of this bird are not many. Mr. Lawrence first placed the Panama birds 

 as Hypocnemis scMsiacea ^^, which is a bird of the Upper Amazons and still retained in 

 Hypocnemis. The same author subsequently described a young male from the same 

 country as Bysithamnus rufiventris ^o. 



Cercomacra tyrannina is a bird of the dense tropical forest, where it lives amongst 

 the underwood. We noticed nothing of special interest in its habits, and little has 

 been recorded by other travellers. Stolzmann, who observed it as high as Chirimobo 

 in Peru (5400 feet), says that it lives both in the interior of the forests and on the edges, 

 but ahvays in pairs. Its cry is peculiar, and unlike that of other Formicariidse ^^. 



2. Cercomacra nigricans. 



Cercomacra nigricans, Scl. P. Z. S. 1858, p. 245 ' ; Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xv. p. 267 ' ; Scl. & Salv. 



P. Z.-S, 1879, p. 526 '. 

 Pyriglena maculicaudis, Scl. P. Z, S. 1858, p., 268 (?) * ; Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. vii, p. 325 ' ; Scl. 

 . ; & Salv. P..Z. S. 1864, p. 356 '. 



Cercomacra maculicaudis, Scl. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xv. p. 268'. 

 Atra, plaga dorsali -celata, campterio alari, tectricum alarum et rectricum apicibus albis : Tostro et pedibus 



nigris. Long, tota 6-0, alae 2-6, oauda; rectr. med. 2-8, rectr. lat. 1-9, rostri a rictu 0-9, tarsi 1-0. (Descr. 



maris exParaiso, Panama. Mus. nostr.) 

 $ "grisea, gutturis et pectoris plumis medialiter albis nigricanti-griseo marginatis. (Descr. feminae ex Santa 



Eita, Ecuador. Mus. nostr.) 



.Sa5.. Panama, Lion Hill {M'Leannan^ % Paraiso Station (/%7i^s). — Colombia 3 ; 

 Ecuadok; Venezuela^; TeinidadI 

 We are unable to distinguish between adult males of C. nigricans and C. maculi- 

 caudis, and the type of the former seems to us to be a young bird. Mr. Sclater does 

 not. separate the skins in the British Museum geographically, for he places birds from 

 Panama and Colombia under both names. 



