282 TAIHAGRIDM. 



several times found it abundant in the outskirts of the forest near Yzabal, some patches of 

 one of the more slender species of bamboo being its favourite resort. B. passerinii is 

 quite unknown from the western forests of Guatemala, which stretch to the shores of the 

 Pacific. In Costa Eica v. Frantzius also considers it an inhabitant of the eastern forests, 

 where he describes it as common ^^ ; we have, however, specimens from our collector 

 Arce, which were from La Barranca on the western slope of the mountain-range. In 

 the neighbourhood of Chiriqui it has long been known to occur on the Pacific side of 

 the Cordillera. Chiriqui seems to be the extreme limit of its range in this direction, 

 for at Santiago de Veraguas, and thence to western South America, B. icteronotus 

 entirely takes its place, the two birds never apparently being found in the same 

 district. 



2. Ehamphocoelns icteronotus. 



Ramphocelus icteronotus, Bp. P. Z. S. 1837, p. 121 ' ; Rev. Zool. 1838, p. 8 ' ; DuBus, Esq. Orn. 

 t. 15'j Scl. P. Z. S. 1856, p. 131' J 1859, p. 139'; Cass. Pr. Ac. Phil. 1860, p. 141 '^ 

 Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. Tii. p. 297"; Scl. & Salv. P.Z.S. 1864, p. 350'; 1879, p. 501°; 

 Salv. P. Z. S. 1867, p. 139 " ; Tacz. P. Z. S. 1877, p. 332 ". 



Ramphocelus varians, Lafr. Rev. Zool. 1847, p. 216 ". 



Velutino-niger, dorso toto postioo laetissime flavo ; rostro plumbeo ; pedibus plumbeo-nigris. Long, tota 6-5, alae 



3-2, caudae 2-9, rostri a rictu 0-75, tarsi 0-9. 

 5 supra fasca, alis intus et cauda nigricantibns, dorso postioo et corpore toto subtus flavis. (Descr. maris et 



feminse ex Lion Hill, Panama. Mus. nostr.) 



Eab. PAifAMA, Santiago de Veraguas (ArcS ^"j, Lion-Hill Station (M'Leannan ^ ^), 

 Paraiso Station (Hughes), Turbo and the rivers Atrato and Truando (Wood^). — 

 Colombia ^ ^ ; Ecuadoe ^ ^ ; Peeu ". 



This beautiful species, which has no near ally in its genus, belongs to the forest- 

 region of Peru and Ecuador west of the Andes, and thence passes northward through 

 the lower part of the Cauca Valley in Colombia and into the isthmus of Panama to 

 the province of Veraguas, beyond which it has not been found, Bhamphoccelus passerinii 

 taking its place in Chiriqui and in the rest of Central America. 



Bhamphoccelus icteronotus was first briefly described by Bonaparte in the ' Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society ' for 1837 \ and subsequently more at length in the ' Eevue 

 Zoologique ' (1838). Some eight or nine years afterwards DuBus gave drawings of it 

 in his ' Esquisses Ornithologiques ' from specimens obtained near Guayaquil in Ecuador 3, 

 in the western part of which Republic Eraser also met with it near Pallatanga and 

 other places, where he says it is commonly seen on orange-trees ^. It has also been 

 obtained at other points on the west coast of Colombia, at San Buenaventura by 

 Delattre^, and at Choco Bay by Capt. Kellett^. Salmon, who found it at Eemedios 

 and Nechi in the State of Antioquia \ obtained its nest, which he describes as made of 

 small twigs, moss, and dead leaves, lined with fibrous roots, and placed in low bushes. 



