376 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



Carnegie Museum : El Hogar, Rio Sicsola, Carrillo (Carriker). Four 



skins. 



These birds differ exceedingly among themselves in the intensity of 

 coloring both above and below, and in the amount of the dusky mark- 

 ings above. Of the four specimens in the collection, three are very 

 olivaceous on the breast, but one (probably an adult) is paler below 

 with scarcely any olive shading. The wing presents the typical color- 

 ation on which the form was based. This bird is from southern Costa 

 Rica (El Hogar), and it seems that birds from farther north are more 

 inclined to intergrade with true robustus, the series from La A r ijagua 

 being all near it. At the best it seems a rather poor form and is cer- 

 tainly not entitled to more than subspecific rank. 



Like all species of the genus, it is found only in the heavy dark for- 

 ests of the lowlands, is solitary in its habits, very shy and difficult to 

 shoot, rising, when flushed, with a suddenness which fairly takes the 

 breath, and goes hurtling off through the trees with the speed and 

 quickness of a woodcock. Their food seems to be largely of a vege- 

 table nature, such as seeds, small nuts, and some kinds of succulent 

 leaves. It is usually silent during the day, but has a habit of uttering 

 its melancholy call just at dusk. There seems to be no fixed time for 

 laying the eggs, as I have seen them from February to July. No nest 

 is made, the eggs being laid on the ground, usually ^upon a few leaves, 

 in a slight excavation at the foot of a tree. They are larger than a 

 hen's egg, very ovoid, and of a beautiful blue-green color, and number 

 from four to five. 



Ranges over the whole of the Caribbean lowlands, northwestward 

 along the southern slope of Lake Nicaragua to Northwestern Costa Rica 

 and southward on the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Nicoya. 



3. Tinamus castaneiceps Salvadori. 



Tinamus castaneiceps Salvadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XXVII, 1895, 5°7> ^ • 

 VI (Lion Hill, Panama [M'Leannan] ). — Salvin and Godman, Biol Centr.- 

 Am., Aves, III, 451 (Pozo Azul [Underwood]). — Bangs, Auk, XXIV, 

 1907, 290 (El Pozo de Terraba [Underwood]). 



Tinamus robustus Zeijedon, Cat. Aves de C. R., 1882, 29; An. Mus. Nac. de 

 C. R., I, 1887, 128 (Pozo Azul de Pirris). — Cherrie, Expl. Zool. en C. R., 

 1891-2, 1893, 54 (Palmar and Boruca). 



U. S. Nat. Museum : Pozo Azul de Pirris (Zeledon). 

 Bangs Collection : Pozo Azul de Pirris (Underwood). 

 Carnegie Museum : Pozo Azul de Pirris and El Pozo de Terraba 

 (Carriker). Four skins. 



