94 



utrinque marginato ; ventre albo maculis nigris confertim maculato ; subalaribus et remigum margi- 

 nibus internis cinnamomeis ; rostro nigrOj pedibus plumbeis : long, tota 6"2, alee 3'Oj caudse 2'4, 

 rostri 1"3. Fern, naari similis. 



Hab. in Guiana et in Amazonia inferiore. 



The term employed by Buffon for this bird, "Tamatia," was adopted from Marcgrave, although it 

 is hardly doubtful that Marcgrave had in view another species of the group. Gmelin consequently 

 called the present species Bucco tamatia, a name which I continue to use, although many 

 authors have considered it the type of a different genus — Chaunornis sive Nyctactes. But I can 

 find no sufficient structural character to warrant its separation from the preceding members of 

 the group. 



The examples of Bucco tamatia described by Bufi"on and Levaillant were received from the 

 French colony of Cayenne; and examples of the well-known "make" of that country are fre- 

 quently to be met with in collections. In the adjoining territory of British Guiana Schomburgk 

 found it in the deepest woods, and says it " seems to have an extensive range." " They are seen," 

 he tells us, " in out-of-the-way places, and sit solitary or more rarely in pairs, phlegmatic and 

 sorrowful-looking, upon the branches of the low bushes. They are by no means shy, and let one 

 approach within six or eight steps, when they fly a little way further off and resume their 

 melancholy posture. Their food is insects. I have never heard them utter any cry. The 

 Macusi Indians call them 'Kawari'." 



From Guiana B. tamatia extends far into the forests of Lower Amazonia. Mr. Wallace 

 met with it near Para, on the Capim river, and on the E,io Negro. Natterer obtained numerous 

 examples at Borba, on the Madeira, and on the Guapore, one of its highest confluents, and again 

 at Barra, Marabitanas, Forte de Rio Brancho, and other localities on the Rio Negro. Natterer 

 describes the bill as black in both sexes, the iris carmine, and the feet olive-grey. 



In Upper Amazonia, as will be shown presently, Bucco tamatia is replaced by the closely 

 allied form B. pulmentum. 



In a footnote appended to their account of this species in the ' Museum Heineanum,' 

 Messrs. Cabanis and Heine state that examples in the Berlin Musem, from Para, are more darkly 

 coloured than Guianan specimens, while on the other hand, as regards the colour of the front, 

 they come nearer to B. jiulmentum, and are also remarkable for their more deeply coloured 

 throat, and for the greater number and intensity of the round spots on the belly. Should these 

 differences be found constant, they propose the name Chaimornis Jiypnalea for this form. 



As respects these remarks, I may observe that most of the Para skins of this species which 

 I have examined do not sensibly differ from the Guianan form. But, as already noted by 

 Mr. Salvin and myself (P. Z. S. 1867, p. 582), one of Mr. Wallace's examples from the Capim 

 river has the spots on the belly crowded together as in B. jpulmentum. The throat, however, is 

 as dark as in the Cayenne bird, not pale as in B. pulmentum. Being, as will be seen below, 

 hardly convinced of the specific distinctness of the latter species, I do not think it necessary to 

 say more than that I cannot admit the specific distinctness of the Lower- Amazonian form. 



