62 



remigibus secundariis extemis et cauda dorso concoloribus ; rostro rubro, culmine nigricante ; pedibus 

 flavidis : long, tota 7'0, alae 3'2, caudae 2*6, rostri a rictu 1-4. 



Hab. in Guiana et Amazonia tota. 



Although Brisson, to whose exact descriptions the greater number of the species of birds 

 contained in the last edition of the ' Systema Naturae ' were referred, attributed several species 

 to his genus JBucco, Linnseus adopted but one of these — namely, the bird denominated by Brisson 

 " Bucco " par excellence, to which Linnaeus added, by some curious oversight, the specific term 

 " capensis" although Brisson gave its correct habitat. It follows, therefore, that Bucco capensis 

 (that is, the present bird), however far we subdivide the group to which it belongs, must remain 

 the typical species of the genus Bucco of Linnaeus, and of the whole family Bucconidae. 



Gmelin, in his edition of the ' Systema Naturae ' (published in 1788), continued the use of the 

 erroneous Linnaean name " capensis" although he correctly states Guiana as the locality of the 

 species. But two years subsequently Latham changed the specific term to " collaris" which has 

 since been universally adopted as the designation of this bird. 



The older authors were only acquainted with this Pufi"-bird as a denizen of the forests of 

 Cayenne and Demerara. In the large collections that were, until recently, sent to Paris from 

 the former colony Bucco collaris was not an unfrequent species. Schomburgk does not include 

 it in his list of the birds of British Guiana; but there can be little doubt that it occurs also in 

 that colony in suitable localities. From the littoral countries of this part of South America the 

 present species extends far into the interior throughout the dense forests of Amazonia. Natterer 

 met with it on the Rio Negro at Marabitanas and below Boavista, also near Borba on the 

 Rio Madeira. In his field-notes, as given by Pelzeln (Sitz. Ak. Wien, xx. p. 510), he describes 

 the bill in fresh specimens of the female sex as " dark orange-red, with the point of the upper 

 mandible black, and the culmen reddish grey. The tongue is small and cartilaginous, with the 

 apex entire, and reaches rather beyond the middle of the length of the beak. The eye-ring is 

 very broad, thin-skinned, orange yellow in colour, the inner half black. The naked region round 

 the eye is pale brownish-yellow, somewhat passing into green. The iris is bright vermilion, with 

 an outer ring of dirty whitish yellow, which ring is much broader under the upper eyelid, where 

 it occupies nearly half the iris. The feet are yellowish green, and the claws pale ochre-yellow." 

 In the male, Natterer tells us that the colours of the soft parts are as in the female, except that 

 the " culmen and apex of the upper mandible are dark brown, the feet and claws are dirty 

 yellow, with the upper surface of the tarsi scarcely passing into olive." The bird was found by 

 Natterer solitary in the forests. Mr. Wallace also obtained this species on the Rio Negro. 



From the forests of Upper Amazonia many well-known collectors have transmitted examples 

 of Bucco collaris. Hauxwell's excellent skins of this species are marked " Chamicurros " and 

 " Loreto-yacu." Mr, E. Bartlett met with it at the former place, and also at Chyavetas. He 

 remarks that it is found more in the hilly and dry districts, and is often " seen near the ground, 

 hunting for beetles and other insects." Whitely's collection from Yquitos, made in 1878, 

 contained examples of this species, as did Poeppig's series from the province of Maynas, now in 

 the Leipsic Museum. Still further to the west, it has been obtained by Mr. Buckley at Sarayacu 

 in Eastern Ecuador, an Indian village situated on the Bobanaza — a confluent of the Pastaza, which 



