128 



MNIOTILTID^. 



Mexico and Central America, its southern migration extending to the Isthmus of 

 Panama, but not beyond it, as hitherto we have not met with any instance of its 

 occurrence on the mainland of South America. In many of the West-Indian Islands 

 too it is common at this season ; and it also reaches Bermuda. In Mexico its presence 

 has not been noticed on the west coast until we come to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec ; 

 but on the east side it is abundant, occurring everywhere, according to Prof. Sumichrast, 

 in the neighbourhood of Orizaba ^K In Guatemala we also found it in all parts of the 

 country up to an elevation of 5000 or 6000 feet. It frequents the more open districts, 

 where scattered bushes grow, rather than the denser underwood. A bird in summer 

 dress is rarely met with in Central America ; and the same may be said of Cuba, where 

 Dr. Gundlach says that the birds begin to moult just before leaving for the north, and 

 that he has never obtained a fully moulted bird in the island. In Jamaica, however, 

 it has been stated, on the good authority of the late Mr. March, that it occasionally 

 breeds ; and skins and eggs of it were once sent to the Smithsonian Institution by that 

 gentleman ^. 



The United States also afford winter quarters to D. coronata. Thence it migrates 

 northwards to breed, and passes this season in the high north, a few pairs remaining in 

 northern New England and Nova Scotia. Of its nesting-habits not much is known. 

 Brewer describes a nest from Nova Scotia, which was taken from a horizontal branch of 

 a tree, as composed of fine stalks of grass, slender twigs, and roots, the latter forming 

 the rim ; the lining was of soft grasses, downy feathers, and fine hair. Nests taken by 

 M'Farlane on the Anderson River were generally built in low spruce-firs or on the 

 ground. The eggs are white, sometimes with a bluish shade, and blotched and spotted 

 with several shades of brown, reddish brown, and purple. 



A very full account of the nomenclature of this bird will be found in Dr. Coues's 

 work ^^. 



5. Dendrceca auduboni. 



Sylvia auduboni, Towns. Journ. Ac. Phil. vii. p. 191 \ 



Dendrceca auduboni, Scl. P.Z.S. 1858, p. 298 ^ 1860, p. 350', 1864, p. 172'; Scl. & Salv, Ibis, 



1860, p. 273'; Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 188"; Sumichrast, Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. i. 



p. 547'; Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 269 '; Baird, Brew. & Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. 



p. 229 ' ; Coues, B. Col. Vail. i. p. 271 ". 



Similis D. coronates, eed gula flava, plaga alba alarum magna, capitis lateribus cinereis neo nigris, maculis cilia- 

 ribus nee superoiliis albis distinguenda. (Desor. exempli ex Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 



Hah. North America, Eocky Mountains to the Pacific ^ ^^. — Mexico, Mazatlan 

 (JBiscJwff^), Tepic {Grayson^), Tonila and Jalisco [Xantus^), valley of Mexico 

 {White% Tierra fria [le Strange), Orizaba {Salle ^), Tecamaluca near Orizaba 

 {Sumichrast ''), Oaxaca {Deppe, Mus. Ber.), La Parada {Boucard ^) ; Guatemala, 

 ridge above Totonicapam and San Gerdnimo" {0. S.). 



