BIRDS FROM COSTA RICA—-WETMORE 45 
MOROCOCCYX ERYTHROPYGA ERYTHROPYGA (Lesson) 
Coccyzus erythropyga Lesson, Rev. Zool., vol. 5, July 1842, p. 210 (San Carlos, 
Centre Amérique= La Unién, El Salvador).® 
Near Liberia these curious cuckoos were fairly common in the dense 
growth of old fields and the thickets adjacent, though only by chance 
did I come across them. Specimens were taken on October 22 and 
28. I found them on the ground, either in grass or in partly over- 
erown paths, but seldom saw them in the dense cover until they flushed. 
Sometimes they flew rapidly and expertly for 70 or 80 yards before 
dropping down again into cover, but more often they alighted in the 
edge of a thicket under shelter to remain quiet until finally they 
dropped down and disappeared. I had the feeling that I overlooked 
many of them near at hand in the dense cover. On the Hacienda 
Santa Maria I saw them at the borders of the pastures at about 1,800 
feet, and also near Las Delicias. A male had the soft parts colored as 
follows: Mandible and lower half of maxilla honey yellow; upper 
half of maxilla down to nostril dusky neutral gray; edge of eyelids 
and space in front of eye light yellow; line immediately behind gape 
and extensive bare area behind and above eye clear, light blue; tarsus 
and toes light reddish brown; claws fuscous; iris dull brown. 
Family TYTONIDAE 
TYTO ALBA GUATEMALAE (Ridgway) 
Siriz flammea var. Guatemalae Ripeway, Bull. Essex Inst., vol. 5, 1873, p. 200 
(Chinandega, Nicaragua). 
During my stay in Liberia I heard or saw barn owls nearly every 
evening around the church or in the plaza in front of it. On October 
30 and subsequently the chatter of young came from some conceal- 
ment in the church walls. One or two birds that I saw flying in early 
evening appeared quite dark colored on the breast. 
Family STRIGIDAE 
OTUS COOPERI (Ridgway) 
Scops coopert Ripaway, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 1, Aug. 15, 1878, p. 116 (Santa 
Ana, Costa Rica). 
At the Hacienda Santa Maria on November 12 I shot a male of this 
screech owl that flushed from a tangle of vines in a small grove at an 
elevation of 1,800 feet. 
The bristle-grown toes mark this species from its relatives. 
‘See van Rossem, Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., zool. ser., vol. 23, 1938, pp. 19, 218. 
