121 



present similar characters to the Bogota skins, whilst others cannot be separated from the 

 Panama form. Again, in some Costa-Rican skins I find the white lores and moustaches well 

 developed. I must therefore cease to consider these marks as difi'erential characters, and must 

 unite M. mystacalis to M. panamensis. 



The next name assigned to the present species was M. aspersa, under which, in the 

 Zoological Society's 'Proceedings' for 1854, I described a specimen in the British Museum 

 said to have been received from Caraccas. I am now of opinion that this bird is merely a 

 female of M. 'panamends, and that even the locality is not quite trustworthy, as many of 

 Dyson's Nicaraguan specimens, sold through the late Mr. Hugh Cuming, were erroneously 

 attributed to Caraccas*. 



The present species, therefore, in my ' Synopsis of the Bucconidse,' published in 1854, was, 

 as I now believe, given under three names — M. panamensis, M. mystacalis, and M. aspersa. To 

 these four others have been added since that period, all of which, according tO' my present views, 

 I am inclined to think must also be united to M. panamensis. I will say a few words about 

 each of these names. 



In 1862 I based my M. poliosis upon two pale-backed and less rufous-throated birds 

 obtained by Fraser at Esmeraldas in Ecuador. These specimens, which are still in my cabinet, 

 I now refer to the female of M. panamensis. 



In 1863, in their account of the Bucconidse, published in the fourth part of the 'Museum 

 Heineanum,' Messrs. Cabanis and Heine based a M. cequatorialis upon one of Eraser's duplicates 

 from Esmeraldas. I have five examples of Eraser's from the same locality, but I find it 

 impossible to distinguish them from others obtained on the Panamanic isthmus. 



In the same work the same authors proposed to separate a Costa-Rican example of this 

 species in the Berlin Museum as M. costaricensis. 1 have not, it is true, had the advantage of 

 examining this specimen ; but, after comparing eight Costa-Rican skins of this Soft-wing now 

 before me with the Panama series, I see no ground for separating them, although one of the 

 Costa-Rican specimens comes very near to the northern form M. inornata. 



As regards M. hlacica, described in the same work, and based on a single specimen obtained 

 in " Peru " by Warcewicz, I have come to a similar conclusion. Messrs. Cabanis and Heine 

 admit that it is " very nearly allied " to M. mystacalis, and only distinguishable by the greyish 

 olive-brown colour of the upper plumage and generally paler colour below. This, I think, may 

 well be attributed to merely sexual variation ; and M. Taczanowski has already referred specimens 

 obtained by Jelski and Stolzmann in North-western Peru to M. panamensis-\. 



On the whole, therefore, I think M. panamensis must be regarded as a widely spread and 

 somewhat variable species, which extends from Costa Rica through the isthmus down to Western 

 Peru on the one side, and through the interior of Colombia to the Andes of Merida on the 

 other. The specimens from Esmeraldas, figured on Plate XL. (the male in front and the 

 female behind) 1 regard as fair examples of the prevailing type. But there is much individual 



* E. g. Mycetes palliatus and Sciurus dorsalis, Gray, P. Z. S. 1848, p. 138. 

 t See P. Z. S. 1877, p. 333. 



