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Show 1867.] MR. O. SALVIN ON THE BIRDS OF VERAGUA. 129 Var. 2. Sponge slender, with a few distant angular branches, pale purplish red. Hab. Borneo? (1851, Capt. Sir E. Belcher). B.M. The two varieties were purchased at the same time, in Stevens's sale-room, in 1852. They present just the same differences in colour as are to be observed in different specimens of Melobesiee and Coral-linee; and there is no doubt that the purplish-red specimen will become white by exposure. 8. O n some Collections of Birds from Veragua. B y O S B E R T S A L V I N , M.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S., & c (Plate XIV.) The three collections of birds which form the materials for the present paper were collected at three different localities in Veragua, by Enrique Arce', a native of Guatemala, who formerly worked for Mr. Godman and myself when travelling in the latter country. Having become proficient in bird-collecting, he undertook to go to Costa Rica, where he remained some months ; he then proceeded to Panama, and thence to the ground where these collections were made. The first and largest was from a village called Santa Fe, which Arce describes as situated twelve leagues on the Panama side of Santiago, the capital of Veragua; the next was from the neighbourhood of Santiago itself; and the third from a district beyond Santiago, which Arce calls the " Cordillera de Tole'." Neither this district nor Santa Fe are marked in any m a p that I have seen. All three localities would seem to enjoy a "tierra templada," or cool mountain-climate, in their vicinity; and the presence of a Dipper (Cinclus) in the last named indicates that our traveller reached a considerable elevation. The collection also contains many birds which are found only in the lowlands, showing that Arce also visited the hot forests of low elevation. Before proceeding to enumerate the species contained in these collections, I will shortly mention the notices that have been published from time to time of the birds of this section of Central America, viz. that which is included between the political frontier of Costa Rica and the Panama Railway. The first notice which I can find referring to the birds of Veragua is in the ' Proceedings' of this Society for the year 1850, p. 92, where Mr. Gould describes Cephalopterus glabricollis from a specimen obtained by the botanical traveller M . Warszewicz in the Cordillera of Chiriqui. In a subsequent paper, published in the same year (p. 162), six new species of Trochilidce (Selasphorus scintilla, Thau-matias chionurus, Thalurania venusta, Sapphironia cceruleogularis, Erythronota niveoventris, and Trochilus (-?) castaneoventris) were described by the same gentleman from specimens furnished by M . Warszewicz, and collected between David and the Chiriqui Lagoon. A seventh species from the same collection was also described by PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1867, No. IX. |
