AMPELIS.— PTILOGONTS. 217 



migrations it is uncertain, often remaining throughout the year in places where the 

 winter happens to be mild. It is a late breeder, unhatched eggs having been found as 

 late as October. Owing to the depredations they make on the fruit-trees, great 

 numbers of these birds are yearly destroyed. But fruit is not their only food ; for they 

 also consume quantities of insects, especially their larva;, in the spring and early 

 summer. The nest is usually placed in a low bush or a tree, not more than twenty feet 

 from the ground, and is composed of a strong framework of twigs, coarse vegetable 

 stems, and grasses ; inside this is a compact structure of grasses, fibres of vine-stems, 

 &c., and a lining of leaves and fine rootlets. The eggs, five or six in number, have a 

 ground-colour either slaty or stone, and are blotched with several shades of purple- 

 brown ^^. 



PTILOGONYS. 



Ptiliogonys, Swainson, Phil. Mag. new ser. i. p. 368 (1837). 



Ptiliogonatus, Sw. Zool. Journ. iii. p. 164. 



Ptilogonys, Bp. Consp, i. p. 335 ; Baird, Rev. Am. B. i, p. 410. 



The wing, though pointed in this genus, has the secondary quills much longer in 

 proportion to the primaries than in Ampelis ; the first primary is well developed ; the 

 second and third, falling considerably short of the point of the wing, are acute, the 

 third being slightly curved outwardly towards the tip; the fifth is the longest, the 

 fourth and sixth being nearly equal ; the tail is long, nearly square at the end in 

 P. cinereus, cuneate, with the central feathers much elongated, in P. caudatus ; the bill 

 is short, the gape wide, the rictal bristles being moderately developed ; the nostrils are 

 oval, the frontal feathers nearly reaching to the proximal edge of the nasal opening. 

 The plumage, though soft, is rather more open in texture than in Ampelis. 



Of Ptilogonys, as now restricted, only two species are known — one inhabiting the 

 highlands of Mexico and Guatemala, the other the mountainous districts of Costa Eica. 

 The genus has no nearer ally than Phainopepla in North America; and in South 

 America nothing approaches it even remotely. 



1. Ptilogonys cinereus. 



Ptiliogonys cinereus, S-w. Phil. Mag. new ser. i. p. 368'; Zool. 111. new ser. ii. t. 62"; iii. 1. 102'. 

 Ptilogonys cinereus, Bp. Consp. i. p. 335*; Sol. P. Z. S. 1856, p. 299'; 1858, p. 302°; 1859, 



363'; 1864, p. 173'; Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 13'; 1860, p. 31"; Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. 



p. 412"; Sumichrast, Mem. Boat. See. N. H. i. p. 548''; Duges, La Nat. i. p. 141"; Lawr. 



Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 273 "; Salv. Cat. Strickl. Coll. p. 147''. 

 Ptiliogonatus cinereus, Sw. Zool. Journ. iii. p. 164". 

 Hypothymis chrysorrhoa, Temm. PI. Col. 452". 

 Hypothymis mexicanus, Licht. Preis-Verz. mex. Vog. p. 2, c£. J. f . Orn. 1863, p. 58 '\ 



Cinereus, capifce summo dilutiore, fronte, oculorum ambitu et mento albis; regione parotica et cerrice postica 

 griseo-fusois ; alis et cauda quadrata sericeo-cyaneo, nigris, hujus reetricibus quatuor utrinque lateralibus- 

 plaga quadrata magna alba notatis, bypochondriis olivaceo-flavis, abdomine imo et tibiis albis, crisso luteo ; 



BIOL. CENTK.-AMEE., Aves, Vol. T., March 1883. 28 



