Plate XXVI. 



MYIADESTE8 . UNICOLOK. 



adestes unicolor 



(GEEY SOLXTAIKE), 



Sclater, P.Z.S. 1856, p. 299 ; 1858, p. 97 

 Sclat. et Salv., Ibis, 1860, p. 397. 

 Baird, Eev. A. B. p. 428. 



Cat. A. B. p. 47. 



Schistaceus fere unicolor, loris nigris ; oculorum ambitu albo : subtiis paulo pallidior, ventre medio albieantiore : 

 alis nigris, extus brunnescenti-oleagineo partim marginatis : cauda nigra, rectricibus duabus mediis dorso concoloribus, 

 rectricum lateralium parte apicali pallidiore et harnm apicibus ipsis albis : rostro nigro ; pedibus corylinis : long, 

 tota 7*5, alse 3*8, cauda? 3'4. — JPoem. mari similis. 



Sab. in Mexico merid. orient, in Guatemala orientali. 



We are indebted for our knowledge of this fine species of Solitaire to the researches of 

 M. Auguste Salle of Paris, well-known as one of the most active and enterprizing of the present 

 generation of travelling Naturalists. M. Salle's examples of both sexes of this bird (which 

 exactly resemble one another), were collected near Cordova in the State of Vera Cruz, and the 

 species was first characterized by Mr. Sclater, in his general article on M. Salle's Mexican 

 collections, published in the Zoological Society's "Proceedings" for 1856. Our figure of this 

 bird is taken from one of M. Salle's specimens, still in Mr. Sclater' s collection, which served 

 for the original description of the species. 



A second Mexican locality for Myiadestes unicolor is the vicinity of Orizaba, whence Botteri 

 has forwarded specimens, but we have never met with it in any collection formed in the western 

 part of Southern Mexico, where M. obscurus appears to be the only species. In Guatemala also, 

 as has been already mentioned, it is only in the eastern forests of Vera Paz that this species 

 occurs. Travelling towards Coban from Guatemala, the last outliers of the allied M. obscurus 

 are left shortly before reaching the village of Sta. Cruz. At Coban— a few leagues 

 further on — the present bird has supplanted it, and is abundant in all the patches of wood 

 which clothe the peculiar conical hills of that district. It is also found in the vast forests of 

 Central Vera Paz, at the comparatively low elevation of 1200 feet above the sea-level. Many 

 specimens were obtained by Mr. Salvin's hunters at Choctum in this district, and its character- 

 istic notes were often heard still further north, on the track leading to Peten. 



The Guatemalan name of this species is the " Pito real" or " Ptoyal Thrush ;" which shows 

 that the natives appreciate its distinctness from the allied " Guarda-barranca" The external 



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