EEGATICTJS.— MTIODIOCTES. 165 



In Mexico this species is characteristic of the alpine regions, being common at eleva- 

 tions ranging between 6500 and 10,000 feet. Prof. Sumichrast speaks of it as fre- 

 quently met with in the pine-woods, which it enlivens by the brilliancy of its plumage 

 and the graceful vivacity of its movements ^^. Though most collections from Southern 

 Mexico contain specimens, we have no further account of its habits, nor is any thing 

 known of its nidification. 



2. Ergaticus versicolor. 



Cardellina versicolor, Salv. P. Z. S. 1863, p. 188, t. 34. f. 1' j Ibis, 1866, p. 193'; Baird, Eev. Am. 



B. i. p. 365 \ 

 Ergaticus versicolor, Scl. & Salv. Nomencl. Av. Neotr. p. 11*. 



Euber, uropygio et abdomine medio paulo dilutioribus ; capite toto cum collo et peotore argentescenti-rubris ; 

 alls et Cauda fuscis rubro marginatis, subalaribus albis ; rostro nigricante, pedibus corylinis. Long, tota 

 4"5, alse 2-4, caudae 2'3, tarsi 0"7, rostri a rictu 0*5. (Descr. maris ex Volcan de Fuego, Guatemala. 

 Mus. nostr.) 



5 marl similis. 



Eab. Guatemala, Volcan de Fuego i, Solola, Totonicapam i, and Chilasco ^ {0. S. Sf 

 F. R G.). 



The first specimen we obtained of this pretty species was shot during an excursion 

 to the forests of the Volcan de Fuego, when we were staying at Duenas, in October 

 1861. It was found in a patch of alder trees on the slopes of the mountain, at an 

 elevation of about 7000 feet. We subsequently met with it in the same forests, but 

 usually at a greater altitude, as high as about 10,000 feet, where the mixed forest 

 terminates and the pines commence. It frequents the lower vegetation rather than the 

 tops of the .forest trees. It searches diligently for insects much after the manner of a 

 Setophaga; but it occasionally remains at rest on a twig, its brilliant red plumage 

 showing conspicuously amongst the green foliage of the surrounding trees. Of its 

 nidification nothing is as yet known. Besides meeting with E. versicolor in the Volcan 

 de Fuego we also found it in several other districts of Guatemala, such as the 

 neighbourhood of Solola, at an elevation of about 7000 feet, and in the mountains 

 above Totonicapam as high as 10,500 feet above the sea. In both these places it 

 frequented pine-forests. E. versicolor has never to our knowledge been obtained by 

 the Coban bird-hunters ; but we ourselves met with it in the high mountainous district 

 of Chilasco, at an elevation of about 6000 feet. Here, as in the Volcan de Fuego, it 

 resorted to the upland forests rather than the pines. 



MYIODIOCTES. 



Myiodioctes, Audubon, Synopsis, p. 48 (1839). (Type Motacilla mitrata, Gm.) 



The members of this genus have the rictal bristles well developed, but not so much 

 so as in Setophaga. The bill is broad, and depressed rather than flattened, the tail 



