BUCCO PECTORALIS. 



THE WIDE-BANDED PUFF-BIED. 

 PLATE XXIV. 



Bucco pectoralis, Gray et Mitch. Gen. B. p. 74, pi. xxvi. (1846). 



Bucco pectoralis, Gray, List of Fiss. B. M. p. 47 (1848). 



Capito pectoralis, Bp. Consp. i. p. 146 (1850). 



Bucco pectoralis, Scl. Ann. N. H. ser. 2, xiii. p. 358 (1854). 



Bucco pectoralis, Scl. Syn. Bucc. p. 8 (1854). 



Tamatia pectoralis, Bp. Consp. Vol. Zyg. p. 13 (1854). 



Bucco pectoralis, Scl. P. Z. S. 1855, p. 196. 



Bucco pectoraUs, Lawr. Ann. Lye, N. Y. vii. p. 464 (1862). 



Bucco pectoralis, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1864, p. 363. 



Bucco pectoralis, Wyatt, Ibis, 1871, p. 374. 



Bucco pectoralis, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 105 (1873), 



Bucco pectoralis, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1879, p. 536. 



Suprk niger, vix seneo nitens ; dorsi postici et tectricum secundariorumque pogoniis angustissime albo ruar- 

 ginatis ; spatio utrinque postoculari cum torque colli postici angusto intercedente albis ; subtus gula 

 circumscriptti et ventre albis, fascia pectorali latissima seneo-nigra, lateribus uigro-cinereis albo varie- 

 gatis ; remigum rectricumque pagina inferiore nigricanti-cinerea, illorum pogoniis internis basin versiis 

 albis; rostro et pedibus nigris : long, tota 8*0, alse 3"9, caudse 3"2, rostri a rictu I'o, 



Hab. in Isthmo Panamensi et in Columbia boreali. 



Obs. Species fronte nigra, regione auriculari alba, et gula alba nigro circumdata ^ prsecedentibus distingueuda. 



Whatever may be the case with the birds represented in the four preceding plates, there can be 

 no question, I think, of the claims of the present Puff-bird to full specific rank. Although it 

 closely agrees with the group of B. macrorhynchus in the general system of its coloration, the 

 wholly black front, the conspicuous white ear-coverts, and the extension of the wide pectoral 

 band along the sides of the throat up to the base of the bill are well-marked characters, and 

 render it easily distinguishable from the allied species. 



The Pectoral or Wide-banded PufF-bird was first made known to science in 1847, by a figure 

 published in Gray and Mitchell's ' Genera of Birds.' For many years the typical specimen in the 

 British Museum, which had been obtained from a dealer in 1843, remained unique, and the true 

 patria of the species was unknown. But when in 1861 Mr. James M'Leannan, then track- 

 master of Lion-hill station on the Panama Eailway, began to explore the dense tropical forests 

 surrounding his abode, and to transmit specimens of the birds that he procured to the well- 

 known ornithologist Mr. G, N. Lawrence of New York, these and many other secrets of nature 



