AULACORAMPHUS PRASINUS. 
Golden-green Groove-bill. 
Specific Character. 
Aul. mandihula superiore flava, cidminis striga, macula ante nares, lineaque ad tomium nigris ; 
inferiore nigra ; corpore superiore aureo-viridi. 
Upper surface golden green, passing into blue on the extremities of the secondaries and the 
apical portion of the tail-feathers, of which the lateral ones are largely and the central ones 
slightly tipped with chestnut; primaries brownish black, margined at the base of the outer 
webs with green ; throat and cheeks yellowish white; under surface light green, washed 
with blue on the breast and fading into white on the vent; under tail-coverts chestnut; 
upper mandible yellow, with a patch of black at the base of the culmen, passing anteriorly 
into chestnut-red ; an oblong spot of black before the nostrils, and a streak of the same hue 
along the serratures, above which is a wash of green ; under mandible black, with a 
narrow line of yellowish white at the base. 
Total length, 14 inches; bill, 31; wing, 51; tail, 6; tarsi, IT 
Pteroglossus prasinus, Licht. in Mus. Berl.—Gould, Mon. of Rainph., pi. 29.—-lb. Sturm’s 
Edit., pi. . —Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 404, Pteroglossus, sp. 13. 
Aulacoramphus prasinus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 96, Aulacoramphus, sp. 4. 
Although by far the greater number of the Aulacoramphi are inhabitants of the great continent of South 
America proper, yet we have positive proofs that two species at least are found to the northward of the 
isthmus ; namely the beautiful A. cceruleogularis, which is a native of Veragua and doubtless of Costa Rica, and 
the A. prasinus, which inhabits Guatemala and the southern provinces of Mexico generally : to these districts 
they would seem to be confined, and I believe that they never pass to the southward of Panama: a circum¬ 
stance which tends to support such an opinion, is, that the countries to the north and south of this neutral 
ground have each a peculiar fauna of their own; more in regard to species, however, than to diversity of 
form. When I figured this species, twenty years ago, it was very rare; it is now to be met with in 
many collections ; in my own there are four or five examples, some of which were procured by that inde¬ 
fatigable traveller M. Delattre, while the others were presented to me by my valued friend and corre¬ 
spondent M. Floresi. 
Of the habits and economy of the Golden-green Groove-bill, as distinguished in the minuter details from 
those of the other species of the genus, I have no information to communicate : the sexes present the usual 
similarity of appearance; on the other hand, in the young bird, as will be seen in the accompanying Plate, 
a marked difference occurs, not only in the size, but in the colouring of its bill, during its progress from 
youth to maturity,—a feature not peculiar to this species alone, but characteristic of the whole family: the 
development of the beak, also, is much more gradual than that of the rest of the body; for when the 
latter has acquired its complete dimensions, the former is little more than half the size it is afterwards 
to attain. 
The Plate represents a male, a female, and the heads of two young birds, of the natural size. 
