238 HIETJNDINIDiE. 



{Sumichrast% Merida in Yucatan {Schott ^^) ; Guatemala 5, Duenas ^^ i4, Rio 

 Guacalate near Duefias, San Jose de Guatemala, Eetalhuleu, Coban, Eio Dulce 

 {0. 8. & F. B. G.), San Geronimo (Owen^); Costa Eica, Atirro (Carmiol ^^) ; 

 Panama, Calovevora (ArcS ^^). 



Professor Baird restricted the name S. serripennis to the North- American and Mexican 

 birds of this form, calling those from Guatemala and the rest of Central America by 

 Mr. Sclater's title S. fulvipennis. The latter name was founded upon a young speci- 

 men with rufous edges to the wing-coverts and secondaries. Admitting this to be 

 the case, Prof. Baird still retained the name, but limited the characters to the throat 

 being shghtly rufous and the plumage being more glossy in the southern bird than 

 in true 8. serripennis. With a considerable series before us, selected from all points 

 of the range of this species, we find that in several cases these dififerences are 

 evanescent and therefore untrustworthy, and prefer to call all the birds with the 

 crissum white to the end, and the rump the same colour as the back, by the name 

 of 8. serripennis. 8. uropygialis, the more southern bird, has a rich fulvous throat, 

 a yellowish belly, the ends of the longest feathers of the crissum with a broad blackish 

 band, and the rump grey. 



8telgidopteryx serripennis is doubtless resident in Mexico ; but the evidence on this 

 point is not satisfactory. "In Guatemala, Mr. Owen obtained a nest near San Gero- 

 nimo in May. This was composed of grass and fine roots, the inside being strewn 

 with pieces of dead flag. It was placed in an excavation two feet long ; in a bank of 

 white sand, and consisted of a tunnel terminating in a chamber just large enough for 

 the bird to turn round ; and here the nest was made, containing five white eggs ^. 



In the United States 8. serripennis is migratory, so that the resident birds of Mexico 

 and Central America must receive a large accession to their numbers during the 

 winter season. It breeds in the States, its mode of nidification being just as described 

 by Mr. Owen. 



Eeferring again to the synonymy of this bird, we notice that the birds from Atirro 

 in Costa Eica called 8. fulvigula by Mr. Lawrence ^^ really belong here, and not to 

 8. uropygialis. 



2. Stelgidopteryx uropygialis. 



Cotyh uropygialis, Lawr. Ibis, 1863, p. 181 " ; Ann. Lye. N. Y. viii. p. 3 " ; Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 



1864, p. 348'. 

 Stelgidopteryx uropygialis, Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 317*; Salv. P. Z. S. 1870, p. 184"; Ibis, 



1870, p. 109"; Scl. & Salv. P.Z. S. 1879, p. 496'. 

 Stelgidopteryx fulvigula, Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 317' ; v. Prantz. J. f. Orn. 1869, p. 295 ' ; Salv. 



Ibis, 1869, p. 313 '" ; 1874, p. 307 ". 

 Cotyle flavigastra, Cassin, Pr. Ae. Phil. 1860, p. 133 "j Lawr. Ann. Lye. N, Y. vii. p. 317". 



