518 BUCCONID^. 



Hah. British Hondueas {Blancaneaux) ; Guatemala, Coban ( V. Constancia ^), 

 Choctum, Chisec {0. S. & F. B. G.); Nicaragua, San Carlos, Santo Domingo, 

 Kana ( W. S. Bichardson), Escondido K. (Eichmond i°), Greytown {Holland ^). 



M. inornata was described in 1847 by Vicomte DuBus ^ from a Guatemalan 

 specimen, the characters given indicating that the specimen in question must have been 

 a female bird. The male was subsequently named M. vercepacis by Sclater and Salvin 

 in 1860 ^, the difFerences between the sexes in some species of this genus not having 

 then been appreciated. 



In 1870 Salvin'^ had occasion to compare this northern bird with the more southern 

 M. panamensis, and gave the result as follows : — " In the northern bird, for which the 

 term inornata is the older and must be adopted, the male is distinguished by the 

 rufous colouring extending nearly uniformly over the whole surface below, being 

 slightly paler on the lower belly, and bearing very slight traces of dark markings on 

 the margins of the feathers. In the southern form, for which the name panamensis 

 must be retained, the breast alone is clear ferruginous, and is succeeded below by 

 strongly mottled plumage, formed by the black lateral margins of each feather ; the 



lower belly is pale fulvous, nearly white The females of the two forms are so 



exactly alike that it is not possible to distinguish them." 



Until quite recently M. inornata was only known to live in the vast forest-region 

 of northern Vera Paz, whence we have received many specimens from the collectors 

 who frequent that district from Coban, but where we were not fortunate enough 

 actually to see it ourselves. Within the last year or two we have received specimens 

 from Eastern Nicaragua and the Mosquito coast, both from Mr. Richardson and 

 Mr. Eichmond ; and though the latter naturalist has referred his examples to M. pana- 

 mensis, we have no hesitation in stating that they are very much nearer to M. inornata 

 and cannot really be distinguished from it. Mr. Eichmond, in his paper on the 

 collections he made on the Escondido river, speaks of some very dark examples, which 

 Mr. Eidgway describes, suggesting the name M. fuliginosa for them i^. In view of 

 the variability of these birds and our extreme reluctance to admit the likelihood of 

 two closely-allied forms coexisting in the same district, we prefer to leave the question 

 of the status of these birds in abeyance for the present, awaiting further information 

 respecting this form. 



M. inornata, like the other members of the genus, seems restricted to the hotter 

 lowland forests of the countries in which it lives, and probably does not pass beyond 

 an altitude of 2000 feet in the mountains. It is wholly absent from the lowlands of 

 Guatemala and the countries south of it bordering the Pacific Ocean. 



