MERULA RUFITORQUES (Наг). 
CHESTNUT-COLLARED OUZEL. 
Turdus (Merula) rufitorques, Hartl. Rev. Zool. 1844, p. 214. 
Turdus rufitorques, Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 219 (1847); Du Bus, Esq. Orn. pls. 19, 20 (1848); 
Salvin & Godman, Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, i. p. 22 (1879). 
Merula rufitorques, Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 255 (1881). 
M. noteeo nigro, torque collari lzet& castaneo: за баз nigra, pectore leeté castaneo: rostro flavo: pedibus corylinis. 
Тила beautiful bird is apparently the Neotropical representative of the Ring-Ouzels and White- 
collared Ouzels of the Old World. It is easily distinguished from all the other species of the genus 
Merula by its chestnut breast and chestnut collar round the hind-neck, both of which contrast 
with its otherwise black plumage. 
Until recently the species has been supposed to be confined to Guatemala, where it was met 
with by Mr. Osbert Salvin and Mr. F. D. Godman in the following localities :—“ Dueñas, Calderas, 
Volcan de Fuego (10,000 to 12,000 feet), Godines, Quezaltenango, Cordillera above Totonicapam 
(10,500 feet), Chilasco, and Tactic" (Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, i. p. 22). 
Since the notes in the ‘Biologia’ were published, Mr. У. В. Richardson has met with the 
Chestnut-collared Ouzel in Guatemala at the following places:—Santa Maria and Chiupaché, 
Quezaltenango (10,000 feet), Sept. 1890; San Martin, Quezaltenango, and San José Sololá 
(8000 feet), in October 1890; El Rincon, San Marcos, October 1890; Toliman Sololá (5000 feet), 
Dec. 1890. Again, in June 1897, he procured a specimen at Chancol, Huehuetenango (10,000 feet). 
In the last-mentioned year Mr. Richardson likewise procured specimens in Chiapas, at the 
following places :—Volcan de Tacana (March), Niquiril, San Christobal (April, May). 
Messrs. Salvin and Godman give the following account of the species (l. e.) :—“ Turdus 
rufitorques is rather local in its distribution in Guatemala, though its range extends over a consider- 
able area in that country. It has, too, a great range in altitude, being found below 5000 feet, both 
near Duefias and at Tactic in Vera Paz, and also occurring in some numbers in the pine-forests of 
the summit of the Уојсап de Fuego, as high as 12,000 feet, and in the main cordillera above 
Totonicapam at a height of 10,500 feet. 16 does not seem to be found only in one class of forest ; 
for the plains near Dueñas, where Грота murocoides abounds, the oak-forests of the volcano, and 
the pine-forests of the upper parts, the pine-tracts of Quezaltenango and Totonicapam, and the forests 
it frequents in Vera Paz are each very different in character. It, however, is not so much an 
inhabitant of the belt of dense forest of mixed trees which surrounds the volcano between 7000 and 
10,000 feet; and it is altogether absent from the forests of the hotter parts of Guatemala, which lie 
below 4000 feet. 
“We never found 7. rufitorques breeding; but, as birds were observed about Dueñas and 
Quezaltenango in the month of August, it is probable that they had built in the vicinity of these 
places. It is not, however, a migratory species, except, perhaps, in a very limited sense. 
“Тһе habits of 7. rufitorques recall those of T. merula. It is rather shy, generally keeping out 
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