566 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



viduals in many localities. I think it is most abundant in the Car- 

 ibbean lowlands, especially about newly cleared land, where there are 

 piles of brush and rubbish and new second-growth scrub. It keeps 

 low down in the trees, and has the habit of running along the 

 branches like a squirrel, and it is very likely from this habit that the 

 natives call it " Pajaro Ardilla " (squirrel bird), as has been sug- 

 gested by Mr. Cherrie. Usually it is silent, but occasionally gives 

 utterance to a loud harsh note, very difficult to describe. 



Costa Rican specimens of Piaya are precisely alike from all parts of 

 the country, both in size and coloration. They agree with birds from 

 British Honduras in color, but are much smaller (wing about 18 mm. 



shorter). 



267. Neomorphus salvini Sclater. 



Neomorphus salvini Sclater, P. Z. S., 1866, 60, pi. 5 (Santiago de Veraguas 

 [Arce]). — Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XIX, 1891, 417 (Nicaragua and 

 Panama specimens).- — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves. II, 

 1896, 533 (no C. R. records). — Underwood, Ibis, 1896, 445 (Miravalles, 

 two specimens). — Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXII, 1909, 30 (La 

 Vijagua, Feb. 14, one; Cerro de Santa Maria, Jan. 9, 1908, one [Underwood]). 



U. S. Nat. Museum : Bonilla (Zeledon). 



C. H. Lankester Collection : Cariblanco de Sarapiqui. 



This is the rarest and least known of all the Central American 

 cuckoos, not more than perhaps ten or a dozen of specimens having 

 ever been taken in Costa Rica, the first record for it being the two 

 birds taken at Miravalles by C. F. Underwood, and recorded by him 

 (Ibis, 1896, 445). I never saw the bird but once, shooting one on 

 the Sicsola River, Talamanca, which fell as though killed, but after 

 hunting a long time I w r as not able to find it. It inhabits the thick 

 forest, remaining on or near the ground, but alighting well up in a 

 tree when flushed. Underwood says that the native name for the 

 bird in Guanacaste is "Guia-leon" (Guide to the lion), so called 

 because they firmly believe that these birds are always found near a 

 Puma, or " Leon " as they call it. 



298. Morococcyx erythropygus (Lesson). 



Coccyzus erythropyga Lesson, Rev. Zool., 1842, 210. 



Morococcyx erythropygia Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, 322. — Lawrence, Ann. 

 Lye. N. Y., IX, 1868, 128 (Pacaca [Zeledon]). — Frantzius, Jour, fur Orn., 

 1869, 361 (Pacaca [Zeledon]). — Boucard, P. Z. S., 1878, 48 (Atenas). — 

 Zeledon, An. Mus. Nac. de C. R., I, 1887, 123 (Liberia). — Underwood, 

 Ibis, 1896, 444 (Miravalles to Bebedero). 



