Plate LXXXI. 



CONURUS HOFFMANN! 



(HOFFMANN'S CONUKE). 



Conurus hqfmanni . . . Cab. Sitz. G-es. Nat. Freunde z. Berlin, 13 Nov. 1861 et J. f. 



Orn. 1862, p. 335. 

 „ „ . Finsch. Papageien, I. p. 553. 



„ „ ... Lawrence, Ann. Lye. N. T. ix. p. 131. 



Viridis ; macula auriculari rubra : capitis et gutturis plumis aureo limbatis : secundariorum plumis ad basin 

 aureis : cauda subtus rubricante : rostro pallidissime corneo ; pedibus obscure carneis : iride flava, : long, tota 9*0, 

 alee 5"2, caudse 4"5. 



Sab. in Costa Bica. 





The tract of land bounded on the north by the depression occupied by the Lakes of 

 Nicaragua and Managua and on the south by the Isthmus of Panama contains a very well- 

 marked sub-division of the Central-American Fauna. This state of things, as has been pointed 

 out by Salvin in his recently published article on the birds of Veragua,* evidently originated 

 in a previous geological epoch, in which this portion of the Isthmus was isolated from both 

 Continents by channels connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. No better illustration of 

 this well-established fact of Zoological geography can be given than is afforded by the numerous 

 striking forms lately brought to light by the various collectors who have recently investigated 

 the Ornithology of Costa Pica. Amongst the foremost and most energetic of these were 

 Messrs. von Frantzius, Hoffman, and Ellendorf, — Prussian scientific travellers, for some time 

 resident at San Jose and its neighbourhood. To the exertions of these gentlemen the Eoyal 

 Museum of Berlin owes the valuable series of Costa-Eican birds, which contained the original 

 example of the present species. 



Hoffman's Conure, which has been deservedly dedicated to the memory of one of the 

 Naturalists by whom it was discovered, is so well marked a species as hardly to need comparison 

 with any other of the group known to us. It belongs to a very well-defined section of the 

 genus (Pyrrhura) in which the under-surface of the tail feathers is more or less of a purple-red, 

 and is the only member of this section found north of the Isthmus of Panama. 



The specimens of this Parrot upon which Dr. Cabanis founded the species were obtained 





P.Z.S. 1867, p. 129. 

 [161] 



