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Show 498 MR. P. L. SCLATER ON THE BIRDS OF LIMA. [May 16, neis ; long, tota 3*8, alee 27 o, caudee 1 *4 .* cauda vix rotundata, alis brevibus, remigibus tertio quarto quinto et sexto fere eequalibus. Hab. Vicinity of Lima (Nation) ; Babahoyo, Western Ecuador (Fraser). Amongst the birds collected by Mr. Fraser in Ecuador was a specimen of a small Todirostrum-Wke species, shot at Babahoyo in August 1859, which from its bad condition I was unable to determine, and entered in m y list of his collection (P. Z. S. 1860, p. 283) as Todirostrum, sp.? In m y American Catalogue (p. 209) I associated this specimen with another imperfect skin of a bird of the same group previously obtained by Fraser at Nanegal (P. Z. S. 1860, p. 93), but, I now believe, erroneously ; for I subsequently convinced myself that the Nanegal skin was merely Euscarthmus squamicristatus (Lafr.) in young plumage. But Mr." Fraser's Babahoyo skin is certainly tbe same as that of which Professor Nation now sends an excellent skin from Lima. E. fulviceps seems to be distinguishable from all other members of the genus that I am acquainted with by its fulvous head. Mr. Nation sends me the subjoined note on it. "In 1869 I discovered this interesting little Tyrant in an Acacia-grove, situated between a marsh and the sea-shore, about ten miles from Lima. Subsequently I have visited this place many times, and have always found a few of these birds in company with individuals of Eupsilostoma in the extremities of the branches ; but, as far as I know, it is not met with elsewhere in this district. Its habits so much resemble those of the Eupsilostoma that for many years I confounded the two species together. " The food of this bird consists of sedentary insects. Its irides are brownish black."-W. N. 4. AN.F.RETES ALBOCRISTATUS (Vig.); Sclater, Cat. Am. B. p. 212. " This beautiful little tyrant is only an accidental visitor in the vicinity of Lima. One Sunday afternoon, in December 1868, I saw three individuals of this species in an Acacia tree overhanging a river. On the following morning I succeeded in finding them in the same tree and in shooting one ; in the course of the week following I managed to obtain the other two. The birds proved to be an adult female and her two young ones. They were very restless, and continually moving from one twig to another. The food of this species appears to be exclusively insects. The irides are brownish blue. " O n the 8th of February, 1871, 1 again found this species, sixty miles up the siver, at an altitude of 3000 feet."-W. N. 5. AMAZILIA PRISTINA, Gould. " As I write an Amazilia pristina has been sitting perched on a plant in the garden outside m y window, singing delightfully at intervals. Rhodopis vesper, Thaumastura cora, and Th. francescee seem to be silent species."-W. N. |