374 PEINGILLID^. 



J. cinereus remain to be discovered. These must be looked for in the wide extent of 

 unexplored country of Northern Mexico. 



2. Junco alticola. (Tab. XXVI. %. 1.) 



Junco alticola, Salv. P. Z. S. 1863, p. 189 » ; Ibis, 1866, p. 193'. 

 Junco cinereus, var. alticola, Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 580'. 



CinereuB, regioni oculari, pileo et nucha obscurioribus ; ventre medio albicante ; hypochondriis, crisso et uro- 

 pygio brunnescentioribus ; alis fusco-nigris, remigibus medialiter extus cinereo limbatis, interscapulio et 

 seoundariis extus rufescente-brunneis ; Cauda fusco-nigra, rectricibus duabus ntriuque externis macula 

 alba ad apioem notatis ; rostro nigro, mandibula ad apicem albida. Long, tofca 6"25, alae 3"1, caudie 3. 

 (Descr. exempl. typ. ex Volcan de Puego. Mus. nostr.) 



Av. juv. supra obscure brunnea fusco indiatincte maculata, subtus sordide alba pectore et hypochondriis palUde 

 fuscis undique fusco guttatis. 



Eab. Guatemala, Volcan de Fuego 10,000 to 12,000 feet, Volcan de Agua 10,000 to 

 12,000 feet, Altos, Quezaltenango, Totonicapam, &c. {0.S.& F. D. G.^ 2). 



This species is restricted to the higher districts of Guatemala, and is probably not 

 found at an elevation of less than 8000 or 9000 feet above the sea. On emerging from 

 the forest-belt of the lofty volcanoes of Agua and Fuego, which ceases at an elevation 

 of about 10,000 feet, and gives place to grassy slopes with scattered pines, one of the 

 first birds that is met with is Junco alticola. Here it is not uncommon, flying about 

 from bush to bush in company with such birds as Dendrceca occidentalis, Turdus rufi- 

 torques, and Troglodytes brunneicollis. This bird was first discovered by us in the Volcan 

 de Fuego in November 1861, and we afterwards met with it on the upper slopes of the 

 Volcan de Agua and about the open upland country of the Altos of Guatemala near the 

 towns of Quezaltenango and Totonicapam. 



J. alticola has been treated by American writers as a variety or race of J. cinereus, as 

 if it were an imperfectly segregated form ^. This position for it cannot, we believe, be 

 maintained. Not only are the two birds distinguishable in all stages of plumage, but 

 their highland domicile gives each an isolated habitat, so that there is no suitable inter- 

 mediate district where the necessary intermediate forms may be found. No doubt the 

 relationship between /. cinereus and /. alticola is obvious, but nevertheless their 

 segregation is complete. 



CHONDESTES. 



Chondestes, Swainson, Phil. Mag. n. ser. i. 435 (1827) j Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 562 ; 

 Coues, Key N. Am. B. ed. 2, p. 384. 



This genus contains two closely allied forms, one of which, C. striffoius, occurs within 

 our limits. The bill is much like that of Zonotrichia, conical, and slightly tumid 

 towards the nostrils. The wings are long, the first primary nearly equalling the second 

 and third, which are subequal ; the longest of the inner secondaries slightly exceed the 



