30 TTJEDED^. 



This species was first described in 1852 by Dr. Hartlaub, from a specimen sent to the 

 Hamburg Museum by M. Gadechens^; and since that time numerous examples have 

 been transmitted to Europe, most of them from the vicinity of Coban, in Vera Paz. 

 Melanotis hypoleucus is a common bird in the neighbourhood of Due3.as, where it is 

 resident throughout the year. ' It frequents the thick bushes and underwood on the 

 banks of the Rio Guacalate and the borders of the open land near Duenas. It is a shy 

 bird, skulking to elude observation, and never flying far in the open. During the greater 

 part of the year its song is rather disjointed and short; but as the breeding-season 

 approaches in May and June it improves, and is then of fair quality, containing a few 

 rich notes. The breeding-season would seem to spread over a considerable period. We 

 found nests with eggs about the end of May ; two months later, on the 23rd July, a 

 young bird was shot that had just left the nest ; and in the middle of September another 

 young bird was obtained, hardly more advanced than the first. The nest, which is 

 usually placed in a thicket, about 9 or 10 feet from the ground, is a very slight structure, 

 composed of small twigs and lined with fine roots. The usual complement of eggs is 

 three ; these are of a uniform greenish-blue colour, and rather elongated in shape, 

 measuring 1-17 inch by "8. The food of M. hypoleucus consists chiefiy of berries; but 

 as it is also frequently in the habit of scratching about the roots of trees and among 

 dead leaves, insects and their larvae are probably included in its diet. '' 



Melanotis hypoleucus, though restricted in its range to Guatemala, is a well-known 

 and common bird in the highlands of that country. The lowest district where we met 

 with it was the neighbourhood of San Geronimo in the plain of Salama, which lies at 

 an elevation of about 3000 feet above the sea. Near Coban, at an altitude of about 

 4500 feet, it is also common. Of its abundance at Duenas (altitude 4900 feet) we have 

 already spoken. It was also observed in some numbers on the road which skirts the 

 north side of the Lake of Atitlan, near Godines, at a height of not less than 7000 feet 

 above the sea. It will thus be seen that M. hypoleucus has, as a rule, a much more 

 elevated range than its congener M. coerulescens, which is found at the sea-level in some 

 parts of Mexico. 



HAEPORHYNCHUS. 



Toxostoma, Wagler, lais, 1831, p. 528 (nee Rafin.) . (Type Orpheus curvirosiris, Sw.) 

 Harpes, Gamtel, Pr. Ac. Phil. 1845, p. 264 (nee Goldfuss) . (Type Harpes redivivus, Gamb.) 

 Harporhynchus, Cabanis, Arch. f. Nat. xiii. p. 323 (1847) . 



This peculiar genus consists of about eight or nine well-marked species, several of 

 which have been subdivided into geographical races or varieties. The head quarters of 

 the genus seems to be the basin of the Colorado, outlying species being found in Lower 

 California (ff. cinereus), the Eastern States {H. rufus), and in the coast region of Call- 



