NONNULA BEUNNEA. 



THE BEOWN NUNLET. 

 PLATE XLVI. Fig. 2. 



monnula frontalis, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 192. 

 Nonnula frontalis, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1867, p. 752. 

 Nonnula frontalis, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1873, p. 295. 

 Nonnula hrunnea, Sclater, Ibis, 1881, p. 600. 



Suprk brunnea, fere unicolor^ loris subrufescentibus ; alls et caxid^ nigricantibusj secundariorum et tectricum 

 marginibus extus dorso concoloribus, rectricum externarum apicibus et ceterarum marginibus angustis 

 ruf escentibus ; subtus ferruginea^ lateraliter obscurior, in ventre crissoque magis cinnamomea ; sub- 

 alaribus et remigum marginibus internis ventri concoloribus ; rostro nigricanti-plumbeo, mandibula 

 inferiore ad basin flavicante; pedibus pallide fuscis : long, tota 5*5^ alse 2'^, caudae 2'd, rostri a 

 rictu 1"1. Fern, mari similis. 



Hab. in ^quatoria, Columbia interiore et Peruvia oriental!. 



"Bogota" skins, as they are commonly called, have several merits in the eyes of the collector. 

 They are cheap and abundant, and have such a peculiar " make " that it is always easy to 

 recognize them. On the other hand, they are distorted to an extreme, the wings and tails 

 being pushed up into the bodies, the heads drawn in, and the whole skin being compressed 

 together into the smallest possible space. It is consequently not always easy to separate two 

 closely allied forms when both of them occur within the range of the Bogota bird-hunters, as 

 the case of the present species will show. 



I acquired two "Bogota" examples of the present Puff-bird in 1854, shortly after the 

 publication of my 'Synopsis,' but unwittingly referred them to N. frontalis, not supposing that 

 there was likely to be a second species in the same locality, and registered them as such in my 

 'Catalogue of American Birds.' This error led Mr. Salvin and myself into the further mistake 

 of assigning several examples of N. hrunnea procured by Mr. E. Bartlett at various stations on 

 the Upper Amazons (Chyavetas, Chamicuros and Santa Cruz) to N. frontalis. It was not, 

 therefore, until quite recently, when I began to study Mr. C. Buckley's excellent specimens of 

 the present species procured at Sarayacu in Ecuador, that I discovered the truth and proceeded 

 to describe N. brunnea as an independent species. 



I believe, however, that the present bird is fully entitled to specific rank, being really more 

 distinct from N. ruficapilla than is N. frontalis. Its area seems to embrace the wood-regions of 

 Eastern Peru and Ecuador, and to extend northwards into the borders of Colombia south of the 

 Andes, whence the Bogota collectors no doubt procure their specimens. 



Scl. Jac. & Puffb. No. XIK.— November, 1881. u 



