FOEMICIVOEA. 217 



Angostura lo, Pacuare lo, Peje (Carmwl), San Carlos {Boucard ^% Pozo Azul de 

 Pirris, Jimenez, La Balsa {Zeledon i^) ; Panama, Chiriqui, Bugaba " {Arce), Lion 

 Hill {M'Leannan'^ ^ ^i), R. Truando ( PFbotZ ^% 



M. Boucard appears to have been the first collector to notice this species, and a male 

 from one of his collections obtained at Acatepec in the Mexican State of Oaxaca, now 

 in the British Museum, was described by Mr. Sclater in 1858 i. The same traveller 

 afterwards obtained examples of both sexes at Playa Vicente 2. The female, in the 

 meantime, had been found by Leyland at Omoa, and was described by Mr. Sclater in 

 1859 5*. 



Shortly after this we obtained many specimens of both sexes from the hot forest 

 country of Vera Paz, where and at Yzabal F. boucardi has alone been found in 

 Guatemala. 



Southwards of Guatemala this bird occurs in some abundance as far as the Isthmus 

 of Darien. This appears to be the extreme limit of its range, for in the Colombian 

 State of Antioquia and in Western Ecuador F. consohrina takes its place. 



Leyland says of this bird that it is solitary in its habits and is found in thickets s. 

 Mr. Nutting, on the other hand, observes that it seems to be truly gregarious, and is 

 usually seen in flocks of ten or a dozen 1*. He adds that, in marked contrast to all the 

 others of its family, these birds seem to keep to the trees at a considerable distance 

 from the ground, the Formicariidse in general being never seen much above the earth. 

 Mr. Wood observed F. boucardi in abundance at the camp in the cordillera on the Rio 

 Truando. It frequented high trees, and was never seen- to descend to the bushes 1^. 



2. Formicivora virgata. 



Formicivora virgata, Lawr. Ibis, 1863, p. 182 ' ; Ann. Lye. N. Y. viii. p. 6 ^. 



? Formicivora boucardi, Salv. Ibis, 1872^ p. 318 '. 



F. boucardi similis, sed peotore striolis celatis albis forsan distingueuda. Femina ut dicitur quoque diflFert. 



Bab. Nicaragua, Chontales (Belt ^) : Panama, Lion Hill {M'^Leannan ^ ^j. 



We do not feel very confident that this bird is really distinct from F. boucardi, as the 

 chief if not the only character possessed by the male, viz. the concealed white streaks 

 on the breast, does not seem of much importance in view of the fact that F. virgata is 

 found in the country where F. boucardi is common. Our specimen from Chontales 

 possesses white streaks on the sides of the breast ; they are, however, not shaft-streaks, 

 hut white edges to the feathers 6n eat;h side near the base. 



* In his ' Catalogue of American Birds,' p. 183, and in the recently published ' Catalogue of Birds in the 

 British Museum,' xv. p. 255, Mr. Sclater names a male and female from " Oaxaca " as the types of F. boucardi ; 

 but this cannot be correct, as the male was first described from the Acatepec specimen now in the British 

 Museum, and acquired in 1858 from M. Salle. The type of the female described from Leyland's specimen 

 is doubtless in the Derby Museum at Liverpool. 



BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., AvBs, Vol. II., February 1892. 28 



