160 MNIOTILTIDiE. 



come to the great affluent of the Amazons, the river Madeira, where G. pelzelni occurs, 

 a species allied to those of Western Mexico. All the members of the genus appear to 

 be very rare, G. sallcei, the least conspicuously coloured of them, being the commonest 

 and having much the widest range. 



a. Capitis et cervids lateres nigri ; guttur album. 

 1. Granatellus venustus. 



Gramtellus venustus, Du Bus, Esq. Om. t. 34'; Bp. Consp. i. p. 312'; Scl. P. Z. S. 1864, p. 607, 

 t. 37. f. 3 '; Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 231 ' ; Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 270 ' ; Bull, 

 U.S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 16 «. 



Caeruleseenti-plumbeus, fronte et capitis lateribus nigris torque pectorali nigro conjuntis ; litura postoculari, 

 gula et hypoctondriis pure albis ; abdomine medio rosaceo-rubro ; cauda nigra, rectrice extima utrinque 

 fere omnino alba, duabus prosimis ad apices gradatim albis ; rostro plumbeo ; pedibus fuscis. Long, tota 

 5-4, alse 2-47, caudae rect. jned. 2-9, rect. ext. 2-55, rostri a rictu 0-65, tarsi 0'77. (Descr. maris ex Sierra 

 Madre, Colima, Mexico. Mus. Smiths, no. 30169.) 



Hab. Mexico ^, Sierra Madre, Colima (Xantus ^ ^), Santa Efigenia, Tehuantepec 

 {Sumichrasf). 



This beautiful species is one of the rarest of Mexican birds, having a very restricted 

 range in the states bordering the Pacific Ocean from Colima to Tehuantepec, The 

 first (and for many years the only) known specimen was that in the Brussels Museum, 

 named and figured by the late Vicomte Du Bus in his ' Esquisses Ornithologiques.' 

 "Whether this plate of this unfinished work was ever actually published is a matter of 

 doubt ; but a copy of it (numbered 34) was accessible to Bonaparte when he drew up 

 his description of the bird in the ' Conspectus Avium '^j and another was furnished to 

 Mr. Sclater, and copied in the 'Proceedings' of the Zoological Society for 1864 3. 

 An imperfect bird in the British Museum Mr. Sclater in 1859* referred to this 

 species; but this identification he subsequently ^ withdrew in favour of Granatellus 

 pelzelni. 



The only specimen we have seen is that obtained by Xantus, which is now in the 

 National Museum at Washington. Besides this. Prof, Sumichrast has also met with 

 the species on the isthmus of Tehuantepec. 



Of the habits of this bird nothing is recorded ; but they probably resemble those of 

 G.francescoe (next mentioned). 



G. venustus may at once be distinguished from its allies by its conspicuous black 

 pectoral crescent, not present in the other species. As regards the recorded colour of 

 the iris, statements do not agree — Xantus describing it as white, and Sumichrast as brown. 

 The latter colour agrees with that given of its allies G. francescoe and G. pelzelni. 



* P. Z. 8. 1859, p. 375. 



