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Show 40 MR. A. BOUCARD ON BIRDS FROM COSTA RICA. [Jan. 15, the forest is more dense, and the animal life is very abundant. This is the chief locality for Pharomacrus costaricensis, Panterpe insignis, Dorycha bryantce, and Turdus nigrescens. At the altitude of 8000 feet the forest ceases altogether, and you walk on scoriae and ashes sent from the volcano of Irazu a long time ago. Many small trees and aromatic plants grow in the soil up to the summit of the mountain. This is the locality for Selasphorus flammula and 8. scintilla, which are seen sucking the flowers of mistletoes and heaths. Here also I met with m y new species Zonotrichia vulcani. I reached the summit of the volcano, and slept there. On the other side, looking northwest, is the crater, which I have thoroughly explored. Rancho redondo is a farm situated on the western slope of the Volcano of Irazu. It is also a good locality for Phainoptila melano-xantha, Eugenes spectabilis, Chasmorhynchus tricarunculatus, and other rare species. Atenas is about thirty miles west from San Jose, on the road to Puntarenas. San Mateo is on the Pacific slope, at the foot of the Aguacate mountain (rich in gold-mines), about thirty-eight miles from the port. The climate is quite tropical. Some of the species found at San Carlos are also met with here. It is also a rich locality for reptiles and insects. Barranca is only about half a mile from the sea, and ten miles from Puntarenas. The village is built near the river of the same name. Puntarenas is the port. Its name is very appropriate, as it stands on a sandy peninsula extending for about six miles. On one side is the sea, on the other a river ; sometimes the width of this isthmus between the river and the sea is only fifty yards, and never more than one mile. It is excessively hot and unhealthy for a new comer. The vegetation is poor ; but four miles from the town is a fine forest, where animal life is plentiful. Altogether Costa Rica has been well explored by M M . Warzewicz Frantzius, Hoffmann, Ellendorf, Carmiol, father and son, Endres, Arce, Zeledon, Cooper, and others. Up to this day 520 species of birds (some doubtful) are recorded as having been collected in that country; and I feel well satisfied when I think that in a country so well worked up I have been able to obtain several new species and some great rarities-such as both sexes of Phainoptila melanoxantha, a new genus and new species just described by Mr. Osbert Salvin, Carpodectes nitidus ( $ ), Catharus frantzii, Catharus gracilirostris, Turdus nigrescens, Turdus obso-letus, Parula gutturalis, Peeopetes capita/is, Melozone leucotis, Eugenes spectabilis, Selasphorus scintilla, Selasphorus flammula, Oreopyra hemileuca, Oreopyra cinereicauda, Panterpe insiynis, Conurus hoffmanni, Geotrygon costaricensis, Dendrortyx leucophrys, Crypturus boucardi, &c. &c. The total number of species which I collected is about 250 ; but I worked very hard to obtain this result, and until the time of my |