&EANATELLXJ8. 159 



the neighbourhood of both oceans. It does not seem, as a rule, to seek the more 

 elevated regions of Guatemala, though we have evidence of its presence as high as 

 6000 feet in the Volcan de Fuego, and at Coban, about 4300 feet above the sea. 

 Southward of Guatemala it has barely been noticed— once only in Honduras, near San 

 Pedro, by Whitelyis, and once in Costa Rica by HoflFmann n. The species is almost 

 certainly only a winter visitant to Guatemala, and perhaps to Mexico, arriving in 

 September and leaving again in the following spring; our birds were all procured at 

 this season. As regards the colour of the bill, we may remark that black-billed birds 

 have never, to our knowledge, occurred in Guatemala, but in Mexico they are of not 

 infrequent occurrence. This character we take to be a seasonal one, as it is in some 

 other birds. The black-billed Mexican birds may pass the summer in that country. 



In the north /. viridis is a well-known bird, but a summer visitant, arriving in April 

 and leaving again in September. In the Eastern province it is found from Florida to 

 Massachusetts, and in the Middle and Western provinces from the Upper Missouri region 

 to Colorado, Arizona, &c., and Lower California. Its habits are very fully described 

 by American writers «. Its nest is composed of interwoven leaves, bark of the grape- 

 vine, and stems of plants, and lined with fine, long, wiry stems and pine-needles 7. The 

 eggs are white with a pinkish blush, and speckled all over with rich reddish brown. 



GEANATELLUS. 



Granatellus, DuBus, Esq. Orn. sub tab. 24 (1850 ?) ; Bp. Consp. i. p. 313 (1850) ; Baird, Kev. 

 Am. B. i. p. 230. 



This is a very peculiar genus, both as to its form and colour. It has always been 

 placed as an aberrant member of the Mniotiltidse, though its alliance with such Tana- 

 grine genera as Nemosia and Tanagrella has been suggested. Prof. Baird, whose 

 general arrangement of the Mniotiltidae we follow in the present work, considers its 

 position to be near Icteria, a suggestion prompted by its stout bill and the feeble 

 development of the rictal bristles. But there are many points of difierence between 

 Granatellus and Icteria, so much so that their juxtaposition cannot be considered as 

 definitely settled. The bill in Granatellus is broad and high at the base and scarcely 

 notched at the tip of the maxilla ; the culmen and commissure are much curved, as well 

 as the upper edge of the mandible. The nostrils are circular, situated at the distal end 

 of the nasal fossa, the proximal end being covered with a membrane, up to which the 

 nasal feathers do not reach, the nostril being thus completely exposed. The tarsi are 

 comparatively short, and the wings shorter than the rounded tail, the feathers of which 

 have rounded tips. 



There are four strictly congeneric species in this genus, of which three are found in 

 Mexico and the adjoining Tres Marias Islands, one of which extends its range to 

 Yucatan and Guateniala. Beyond this point all trace of the genus disappears until we 



