TUEDIJS. 17 



In Guatemala T. tristis is seldom absent from the neighbourhood of Duenas in the 

 plains between the Volcanoes of Agua and Fuego, where Ipomcea murocoides abounds. 

 It is there a rather shy bird. "We never found its nest, but obtained young birds which 

 Jtiad not thrown off their iirst spotted plumage. In Vera Paz T. tristis is by no means 

 Common in the vicinity of Cohan ; but at a lower elevation in the forests that stretch 

 away to the confines of Peten it is very abundant. The bird-collectors of Cohan obtain 

 many skins from this district ; and we ourselves observed it wherever we went in these 

 forests. Owing, perhaps, to the different character of the vegetation of this part of 

 Vera Paz to what prevails at Duefias, T. tristis is here a strictly forest-loving species. 

 To this cause, too, is probably due the darker colouring of the birds of Vera Paz. 



9. Turdus plebeius. 



Turdus plebejus, Cab. J. f. Orn. 1860, p. 333'; Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ix. p. 91'; v. Frantz. J. £. 

 Om. 1869, p. 290'. 



Sordide fuscus, supra parum olivascenti tinctus, subfcus nisi hypochrondriis dilutior ; subalaribus vix cervinis ; 

 rostro nigro, pedibus corylinis. Long, tota 10'5, alse 5-5, caudae 4"3, rostri a rictu 1'2,. tarsi 1'3. (Desor. 

 maris ex La Palma, Costa Eica. Smiths. Inst. no. 42804. Mus. nostr.) 



Hah. Costa Eica ^, Dota, San Jose, La Palma {v. Frantzius ^), Grecia, Cervantes 

 (Carmiol ^), Volcan de Cartago (Sogers). 



This plain-coloured Thrush was first described by Dr. Cabanis from Costa-Eica spe- 

 cimens sent by Drs. v. Prantzius, Hoffmann, and EUendorf to the Berlin Museum. 

 Dr. V. Frantzius has since forwarded skins of it to the Smithsonian Institution ; and other 

 collectors in Costa Eica have also met with it, though it would appear to be not so com- 

 mon as some of its congeners. Dr. v. Frantzius tells us it is found in the forests of the 

 mountainous parts of the country at an elevation of from 3000 to 6000 feet above the sea. 



Turdus pleheius, though devoid of any striking characters in the markings of its 

 plumage, is nevertheless a well-defined species, its nearest ally being T. ignohilis of 

 Ecuador and Colombia. It has the bill black as in that species ; and the throat is 

 without the conspicuous patch of white which distinguishes T. tristis and its allies. 

 It differs from T. ignobilis in its larger size, and in having the whole of the under 

 plumage of the same dull grey-brown colour as the chest, these parts in T. ignohilis 

 being nearly white. In his original description of the species, Dr. Cabanis compares 

 T. pleheius with T. amaurochalinus (i. e. T. leucomelas), a bird of the same group as 

 T. ignohilis ; and this seems to us to be its proper position. The first primary is quite 

 short, as in birds of that group ; and the under wing-coverts have a rufous tinge. 

 T. nigrescens and T. chiguaco, between which T. pleheius is placed in the ' Nomenclator 

 Avium Neotropicalium,' have each of them a long first primary, and thus belong to a 

 different section of the genus ; and from their immediate vicinity we now think that 

 2. pleheius ought to be removed. 



BIOL. CBNTE.-AMBB., Zool., Aves, Vol. 1, Sept. 1879. 3 



