126 



markings on the margins of the feathers. In the southern form, for which the name panamensis 

 must be retained, the breast alone is clear ferruginous, and is succeeded below by strongly 

 mottled plumage, formed by the black lateral margins of each feather ; the lower belly is pale 

 fulvous, nearly white. These characters are still more strongly marked in the specimens from 

 Western Ecuador in Sclater's collection. The females of the two forms are so exactly alike that 

 it is not possible to distinguish them " *. 



Mr. Salvin did not meet with these birds himself during his several journeys to Guatemala. 

 He tells me, however, that they appear to occur only in the warmer forests of Northern Vera Paz, 

 at an elevation above the sea-level not exceeding 2000 feet. Numerous specimens were obtained 

 by his Indian collectors in the woods round the native settlements called Choctum and Chisec in 

 the upper valley of the Eio de la Pasion, where these and other birds are killed by the blow- 

 pipe, which is generally used in that district. 



The name inornata was conferred on the Guatemalan Soft-vdng by M. le Vicomte B. DuBus, 

 in a paper on some new species of American Birds in the Eoyal Museum of Natural History of 

 Brussels, read before the Belgian Academy on August 7th, 1847, and subsequently published in 

 the ' Bulletin ' of the Academy. The specimen described by the author appears to have been a 

 female. In 1860 Mr. Salvin and I, in our joint paper on the ornithology of Guatemala, described 

 what we now believe to be the male of the same species as Malacoptila vercB-^acis. 



So far as we know, Malacoptila inornata is restricted to Guatemala. From Honduras I 

 have not yet seen examples of this form ; so I cannot tell whether they belong to M. inornata 

 or M. ;panamensis. The Costa-Eican specimens must, I think, be referred rather to the latter 

 species, although some of them are slightly intermediate. 



The following list enumerates the examples of this Soft-wing in my collection and that of 

 Messrs. Salvin and Godman : — 



No. 



Sex. 



Mus. 



Patria. 



Long, tota, 



alse, 



caudse, 



rostr 



1, 



e 



P. L. S. 



Choctum, Vera Paz (0. S.). 



7-0 



3-4 



3-1 



1-2 



2. 



djr. 



P.L.S. 



Guatemala. 



7-0 



3-2 



3-2 



11 



3. 



2 



P. L. S. 



Choctum, Vera Paz (0. S.). 



7-4 



3-4 



3-3 



1-2 



4. 



? 



P.L.S. 



Guatemala (0. S.). 



6-8 



3-3 



31 



1-2 



5. 



6 



S.-G. 



Choctum, Vera Paz (0. S., 1861). 



7-0 



3-3 



3-1 



11 



6. 



d 



S.-G. 



Guatemala (0. S.). 



7-0 



3-3 



31 



1-2 



7. 



<S 



S.-G. 



Coban, Vera Paz {Const ancia) . 



7-2 



3-4 



31 



1-1 



8. 



2 



S.-G. 



Guatemala (0. «S.). 



7-8 



3-3 



3-5 



1-3 



9. 



2 



S.-G. 



Choctum, V. P. (0. S., 1862). 



7-0 



3-4 



3-2 



1-2 



10. 



2 



S.-G. 



Chisec, V. P. (0. S., 1861). 



7-5 



3-3 



3-2 



11 



11. 



2 



S.-G. 



Vera Paz (0. S., 1864). 



7-5 



3-4 



3-3 



1-2 



The figures (Plate XLI.) are taken from Nos. 1 and 4. No. 7 is the type of M. vercB-pacis. 



* Salvin in P. Z. S. 1870, p. 201. 



