PHBUCTICUS. 335 



1. Pheucticus chrysopeplus. 



Coccothraustes chrysopeplm, Vigors, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 4\ 

 Coccoborus chrysopeplm, Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 504 ''. 



Pheucticus chrysopeplus, finsch, Abh. nat. Ver. z. Bremen, 1870, p. 339 ' ; Lawx. Mem. Bost. Soc. 

 N, H, ii. p. 274*. 



Luteus, dorso medio (luteo variegato), alis et cauda nigris, remigibus apicem versus extns albo limbatis, speculo 

 alari et tectricibus alarum ad apices albis, rectricibus tribus utrinque exfcernis in pogonio intemo plaga magna 

 alba notatis, subalaribus flavis ; rostro et pedibus nigricanti plumbeis. Long, tota 8-3, alse 4-6, caud® 8-8, 

 tarsi I'l, rostri a rictu 1. 



$ supra flavido-fusca fusco variegata, alis efc cauda fuscis, iUis albo bifasciatis bac unicolori immaculata ; subtus 

 sordide lutea, rostri mandibula pallida. (Descr. maris et feminse ex Mazatlan, Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 



Eab. MEXICO ^ (Cummg^), Mazatlan (Grayson ^% Bischoff\ Forrer), Rio de la Ameria 

 {Xantus ^). 



The original description of this species was by Vigors, whose types were obtained by 

 the late Hugh Cuming on the coast of Mexico. For nearly forty years we had no 

 further tidings of the species, and during this time Vigors's name was placed as a 

 synonym of P. chrysogaster, a South-American bird undoubtedly allied to P. chryso- 

 peplus. It is to Grayson that we owe the rediscovery of this species, and its redescrip- 

 tion to Dr. Finsch, into whose hands a few of Grayson's specimens came, and who 

 described them fully and carefully in 1873 ^, 



The limited range of P. chrysopeplus, confined as it is to the districts near Mazatlan 

 in Western Mexico, and the fact that its nearest and not remote ally must be sought in 

 Venezuela and Ecuador, is a remarkable feature in the geographical distribution of the 

 birds of this part of the world. The further circumstance that P. tibialis of Costa Rica 

 is more remotely allied to it than is P. chrysogaster enhances the difficulty of explaining 

 the facts of its distribution, and at present we have no theory to advance in explanation 

 of them. 



Grayson says^ that P. chrysopeplus is rather common in the vicinity of Mazatlan, 

 where its cheerful and voluminous song is often heard in the woods. He adds that it 

 does not migrate. 



P. chrysopeplus may at once be distinguished from the only other Central-American 

 Pheucticus, P. tibialis, by the male having white tips to the tail, yellow thighs, &c. 



2. Pheucticus tibialis. 



Pheucticus tibialis, "Baird," Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. viii. p. 478'; ix. p. 102'; Salvadori, Atti H. 

 AcG. Sc. Tor. iv. p. 177, t. 5 ^ Frantz. J. f . Om. 1869, p. 300 * ; Salv. P. Z. S. 1870, p. 189 '. 



Sordide flavus, abdomine toto et crisao dilutioribus ; loris, iuterscapuliis, alis, cauda et tibiis nigris, speculo alari 

 albo ; rostro et pedibus plumbeo-nigris. Long, tota 8, alae 4-8, caudse 8-1, rostri a rictu 0-8, tarsi 0-95. 



§ mari similis, capite et eervice postico paullo obscurioribus. (Descr. maris et feminse ex Calovevora, Panama. 

 Mus. nostr.) 



Eab. Costa Rica^, Cervantes ( /. Cooper ^ ^, Carmiol ^), Tucurriqui, Rancho Redondo 



