OCR Text |
Show 154 MR. O. SALVIN ON THE BIRDS OF VERAGUA. [Jan. 24, has as yet reached me. The shining forehead is considerably and of a bluer shade, the bill longer, and the under plumage blacker than in a New Granadan specimen of D. ludoviciee before me; the wings, too, are shorter. Should the receipt of additional specimens confirm the constancy of these distinctions, I propose for this race the name of Dorifera veraguensis. 164. HELIODOXA JACULA, Gould, Mon. Troch. ii. pl. 94. Heliodoxa henryi, Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Lye. viii. p. 402. Santiago de Veragua and Cordillera de Tole. A series of specimens of both sexes from Veragua and also from Costa Rica have been sent by Arce. These I have compared with Mr. Gould's specimens of H. jacula; and we both consider them identical with that species. Since then Mr. Lawrence has sent the types of his Heliodoxa henryi to Mr. Gould for examination. They prove to be immature birds identical with our specimens; hence this name must be considered synonymous with H. jacula. This is by no means an isolated case of New Granadan and Costa Rican specimens being specifically identical, though their range appears to be interrupted at the Isthmus of Panama. 165. MICROCHERA ALBOCORONATA(Lawr.); Gould, Mon.Troch. ii. pl. 116. In a previous collection Arce sent two specimens of a bird of this genus and closely allied to this species from Tucurriqui, in Costa Rica. Not having good specimens of the true M. albocoronata with which to compare them, I left them till I could make a more satisfactory examination. Since then Mr. Lawrence has described a female bird from Angostura, in Costa Rica, under the name of Panychlora parvirostris, and afterwards sent the type to Mr. Gould for inspection. Mr. Gould pronounced this bird to be the female of a Microchera. Having now a good series of the true ilf. albocoronata I am able to point out the following differences between it and the Costa Rican bird :-The latter has the rich vinous purple of the back decidedly brighter, the white crown seems to extend further over the back of the head, and the black band of the apical third of the outer rectrices is wider and the inner margin not so sharply defined. The under plumage of M. albocoronata is decidedly darker, being almost black instead of the same shade as the back. These differences are sufficient to separate the Costa Bican from the Veraguan bird; and for the former the name Microchera parvirostris must be taken, though the specific one does not convey the character intended. The range of the two forms corresponds with that of the two Chalyburee above mentioned. 166. GOULDIA CONVERSI, Gould, Mon. Troch. iii. pl. 129. Santa Fe. This species has already been noticed by Mr. Lawrence in M'Le-annan's Panama collections. I have also specimens obtained by Arce at Tucurriqui. |