228 FOEMICAEIID^. 



numbers ; but specimens were not easily secured, as the bird runs on the ground very 

 swiftly, and hides amongst the leaves. It utters loud, rather musical notes, resembling 

 those of the Golden-crowned Thrush of the United States. 



4. Myrmelastes occidentalis. 



Myrmeciza immaculata, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. v. p. 398 ^ ; Zeledon, An. Mus. Nac. Costa Rica, 1887, 



p. 115 (partim) ^. 

 Myrmeciza immaculata occidentalis, Cherrie, Auk, viii. p. 191 \ 



M. sclateri persimUis, et mares forsan haud distinguendi ; femina pallidior, et subtus gutture inferiore et pectore 

 laete castaneis haud castaneo-brunneis dignoscenda. 



Hab. Costa Eica, La Palma {Nutting ^), Las Trojas, Pozo Azul de Pirris {Zeledon ^), 

 Bebedero {F. C. Underwood ^). 



This bird is very closely allied to M. intermedius, but as it is apparently separated 

 by the great mountain-range of Costa Rica from its relative a distinctive name for it is 

 perhaps desirable. Mr. Ridgway has kindly lent us a typical male and three females 

 of this form, and comparing them with a series of twelve examples of M. intermedius, we 

 find no tangible difference in the males, but the females of M. occidentalis are decidedly 

 of a brighter chestnut on the breast and lower part of the throat, Mr. Cherrie speaks 

 of a decided difference of size ; but his measurements only show an average difference 

 in the length of the wing of '02 inch, which does not strike us as of any importance 

 whatever. 



The range of this form is, according to Mr. Cherrie, restricted to the Icfwlands of 

 Costa Rica bordering the Pacific Ocean. How far south-eastwards it extends we are 

 unable to say, as we have only male specimens from Chiriqui, and these do not show 

 to which form they belong. 



Several specimens in the National Museum of Costa Rica are noted as having the 

 bare orbital skin cobalt-blue, and the iris as chestnut ^. 



f. PlumcB supranasales normales. 



MYRMECIZA. 



Myrmeciza, Gray, List Gen. Birds, p. 34 (1841) ; Scl. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xv. p. 277. 



Myrmeciza as at present constituted contains rather a heterogeneous group of species, 

 but we do not propose to recast the genus, beyond removing from it M. exsul and 

 M. immaculata, which come much better into the genus Myrmelastes. This leaves ten 

 or eleven species in Myrmeciza, whereof three occur within our limits. Of these, the 



