2 
Messrs. Sclater and Salvin on the 
The authorities at present existing on the ornithology of this 
country are but few. The birds of Southern Mexico are known to 
us through the researches of MM. Salle, Botteri, and Boucard* * * § ; 
but none of these explorers have yet descended so far south as 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Yucatan, which lies within our 
limits, was visited by Dr. Cabot, who accompanied Mr. Stephens 
in his second journey. Several interesting paperst on the 
birds of this country were the results of this expedition, but 
unfortunately no accurate list of the species obtained was ever 
published. The only account of the birds of Guatemala that 
we are acquainted with, besides some scattered notices of new 
species by Dr. Hartlaub, the Vicomte Du Bus and others, is 
the late Prince Bonaparte's article in the P. Z. S. 1837, “On the 
birds collected by Col. Velasquez de Leon during a fortnight's 
scientific tour in Guatemala." He gives here the names of 
thirty-nine species, some of which were then new. But several 
well-known collectors have visited parts of this country, and 
many of their specimens are now in the Derby Museum at Liver¬ 
pool and our National Collection. M. Delattre passed some 
time at Coban, in the Vera Paz, during one of his f voyages/ and 
has given us an account § of the habits of that magnificent bird 
the Pharomacras jyaradiscus , which he first observed near that 
city. The late Mr. Dyson (whose chief object was, I believe, 
to procure the Ocellated Turkey) collected also on the Bay of 
Honduras and obtained many fine specimens. The late Senor 
Don Jose Constancia, of La Antigua Guatemala, was a corre¬ 
spondent of the late Mr. H. E. Strickland, and sent him several 
collections of birds, some of which were figured in Sir William 
* See “ Catalogue of the Birds collected by M. Auguste Salle in Southern 
Mexico,” by P. L. Sclater, P. Z. S. 1856, p. 283; and other papers, P. Z. S. 
1857, p. 81, p. 201, p. 210, and p. 226 ; and 1858, p. 95 and p. 294. 
+ See Boston Journal of Natural History, iv. p. 246, and p. 460, 
v. p. 90, and p. 416; and the Appendix to vol. ii. of Stephens’s ‘Travels in 
Yucatan. 5 
X See “ Description de sept oiseaux de Guatemala, par le Dr. G. Hart¬ 
laub, Rev. Zool. 1844, p. 215; “ Sur une nouvelle espece du genre 
Melanotis,” ibid. 1852, p. 460: Du Bus in Bull. Acad. Bruxelles and 
‘ Esquisses Ornithologiques. 5 
§ See Rev. Zool. 1843, p. 163. 
