249 
Derby an Mountain-Pheasant . 
specimens previously sent and also to those that I have recently 
been fortunate enough to obtain. 
The first specimen of the Oreophasis ever obtained was shot 
by Don Joaquin Quinones about the year 1848, when in search, 
in company with Mr. Wyld of Duenas, of the large Pigeons 
(Columba fasciata :), Quails ( Ortyx thoracicus , &c.), and other game 
found in the forests of Calderas in the Volcan de Puego in Gua¬ 
temala. This bird was preserved by Mrs. Wyld, and sent as a 
present to the late Mr. Klee, of the house of Klee, Skinner & Co. 
of Guatemala, and by him forwarded to the late Earl of Derby. 
It is now, I believe, to be seen in the Liverpool Museum, and is 
the specimen from which the figure in Gray and MitchelPs 
‘ Genera of Birds * was taken. 
A specimen brought to England by Mr. Skinner in the year 
1855 I have not been able to trace; I believe it arrived in bad 
condition. For the two skins obtained by the same gentleman 
in the following year Mr. Skinner was again indebted to Mr. 
Wyld, who employed a man of the name of Jose Ordonez, a 
native of Duenas (a hunter of deer and peccaries), to procure them. 
This man has since assured me that it was not until he visited 
the mountain for the third time that he succeeded in shooting 
them. The high price Mr. Wyld paid for these two birds, and 
the news of their great rarity in Europe, made the Oreophasis 
more sought after; and Mr. Bittcher, a resident in Guatemala, 
succeeded in obtaining two, which were, I believe, forwarded to 
Hamburg. Don Vicente Constancia, of Antigua Guatemala, 
also, now has in his collection an indifferent skin. 
These seven examples are all that I can hear of as having 
been preserved hitherto. 
During the six months I spent in Guatemala in 1858, I did 
not obtain specimens of the Oreophasis > though Jose Ordonez 
was taken into consultation. My collections were made princi¬ 
pally in the plains about Duenas, and notin the \olcano. Last 
year (1859), while absent in Vera Paz, Jose Ordonez brought 
one to the house at Duenas; but no one being there to skm it, 
it was lost. On my return I again employed the same man, and 
the following morning had the satisfaction to see him walk into 
the yard with one tucked under his arm, and again on the sue- 
