120 



Malacoptila mystacalis, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1875,. p. 237. 

 Malacoptila panamensis, Tacz. P. Z. S. 1877, p. 333. 

 Malacoptila j^anamensis, Boucard, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 47. 

 Malacoptila panamensis, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1879, p. 536. 



Supr^ fiisca ferrugineo lavata, in dorso et alis extiis pallido fulvo punctata > loris et plumis rictalibus albo 

 variegatis ; guld antica et pectore ferrugineis, ventre albo^ in parte superiore fusco flammulato, lateribus 

 ferrugineo variegatis ; subalaribus et remigum marginibus interioribus pallide ferrugineis ; rostro corneo, 

 ad basin flavicante ; pedibus fuscis. Fem. colore notsei fuscescenti-cinereo et pectore valde dilutiore 

 diver sa. 



Hab. in Costa Rica, istbmo Panamensi, Columbia et Venezuela interiore, et in -^quatori^ et Peruvi^ 

 occidentali. 



The first three species of the present genus are well marked in their distinctive characters, are 

 confined to certain limited geographical areas, and show little, if any, difference in the plumage of 

 the sexes. The species which we now come to, as is frequently the case even in the most natural 

 genera, seems to be just the opposite to its preceding relatives as regards all these circumstances. 

 It is so unstable in its characters that five or six species have been based upon its different races ; 

 it has a wide range in Central and Southern America ; and its sexes are dissimilar enough in 

 plumage to have been referred to different species. It has taken me some time to convince 

 myself that the birds described by various authors under the six specific names above given must 

 be referred to one species; but a careful study of the subject has resulted in leaving me no 

 alternative. The only doubt I have is whether I am quite justified in regarding the more 

 northern form, M. inornata, which is figured on Plate XLI., as really distinct. 



The earliest name given to the present bird, and therefore to be adopted for the species in 

 all parts of its distribution, is Malacoptila panamensis^Mnder which Lafresnaye in 1847 described, 

 in the ' Eevue Zoologique,' specimens obtained by the well-known French collector Delattre on 

 the isthmus of Panama. Lafresnaye's description is in every point applicable to the male of 

 this species, of which numerous examples have since been received from the same locality. 

 His types are now, I suppose, in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia, along with the other birds purchased in Europe by the late Mr. Thomas B. Wilson for 

 that institution. 



Three years later Lafresnaye described and figured the Colombian form^ of this bird, in the 

 same periodical, as Malacoptila mystacalis. Such Bogota skins of this species as have come 

 under my notice certainly show a more well-marked white forehead and more perfectly white 

 moustache than is usual in Panama examples of the same bird ; and even up to the time of the 

 compilation of the ' Nomenclator ' Mr. Salvin and I had continued to regard them as distinct, 

 whilst we had come to the conclusion that the forms of Central America and Western Ecuador 

 were inseparable*. But in Mr. Salmon's Antioquian series there are some specimens which 



* Cf. p. Z. S. 1870, p. 201. 



