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Show 160 MR. O. SALVIN ON THE BIRDS OF VERAGUA. [Jail. 24, as the character of the coloration, show that it is not with Ortalida that Chamcepetes must be compared. Its closest relationship is certainly with Aburria, Reich., of which Penelope aburri, Less., is the type, and with P. pipile, a species forming another section of the same group. All these differ from true Penelope in possessing three outer primaries strongly arched, the points of which, for at least 1\ inch of their length, are abruptly-reduced to a width of not more than -l inch. Aburria (P. aburri, Less.) is distinguished by an appendage to its throat. Chamcepetes has the throat quite feathered, while the circlet of the eye and the lores are destitute of feathers. P. pipile, having a bare throat and different style of coloration, seems equally entitled to subgeneric distinction. Penelope rufiventris (Tsch. Faun. Per. p. 291, pl. 31) has been placed in the genus Chamcepetes, as a synonym of C. goudoti. The plate, if trustworthy, shows the style of coloration of the head to be very different. Tschudi also states that it differs from C. goudoti in having a fold in the trachea. The only two known species of this form are therefore:- (1) CHAMCEPETES GOUDOTI. Ortalida goudoti, Less. Man. d'Orn. ii. p. 217; Gray, Gen. of iii. p. 485. Chamcepetes goudoti,Wagl. Isis, 1832, p. 1227. Cauca Valley, New Granada (Goudot). (2) CHAMCEPETES UNICOLOR. Veragua (Arce). With reference to the curious formation of the primaries in these birds, I well remember being startled by a strange sound when shooting in one of the ravines in the Volcan de Agua in Guatemala. Not at first perceiving whence it arose, I walked on, when the noise was again repeated. I then set about discovering the cause, and soon found that it was produced by a male Penelope nigra, Fraser, which, when flying in a downward direction with outstretched wings, gave forth a kind of crashing, rushing noise, which I likened at the time to the falling of a tree. The outer primaries of P. nigra, though very strong, are not cut out like those of the present bird and its allies; and I have little doubt that the latter occasionally produce a strange sound with their wings. Indeed it seems probable that the name by which one of them (P. aburri, Less.) is distinguished by the natives of the Cauca Valley is derived from this peculiarity. The name burri, aburri, aburrida, which M . Goudot asserts well represents their cry, in fact expresses the sound produced by the wings. An analogous case at once suggests itself, that of the "drumming" of the Common Snipe (Gallinago media, Leach), to which I can add another. A well-known Humming-bird of Mexico and the highlands of Guatemala, Selasphorus platycercus, makes a shrill, almost whistling, noise with its wings, which are cut out in a somewhat similar way. |