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Show 1868.] ON NEW AMERICAN BIRDS. 325 the present bird is of exactly the same form as P. biarcuatum, rather smaller in dimensions. 4. PYRGISOMA KIENERI. Pyrgisoma kieneri, Bp, Consp. i. p. 486. Fuscum,pileo et capitis lateribus rufis: plumis auricularibus dorso concoloribus, harum autem apicibus castaneis, loris albescentibus, fronte et genis fuscescenti-nigris: subtus album, hyjjo-chondriis dorso concoloribus, macula pectorali indistincta niyra; crisso rufescente; rostro nigricanti-corneo, pedibus pallide corylinis: long, tota 7'3, alee 3*3, caudce 2*9, tarsi 1. Hab. Western Mexico (?). Mus. Paris. Obs. Similis P. rubricato, sed rostro magis crasso, pedibus ro-bustioribus, et colore corporis superi brunnescentiore. The insufficient diagnosis of Pyrgisoma kieneri given in the * Conspectus' has principally caused the great confusion which now prevails among the species of this group, and which, having lately inspected the typical example of this species in the Paris Museum, we now hope to clear up. Pyrgisoma kieneri of Bonaparte is founded on a single skin in the Paris Museum, collected during the voyage of the 'Danaide' in May 1843. The locality is not given; but the bird was in all probability obtained somewhere on the western coast of Mexico. In general plumage P. kieneri is more like P. rubricatum than any other species of the group; but it is at once distinguishable from all its congeners by its stouter bill, and larger and stronger tarsi and toes. It was, no doubt, these characters that induced Prince Bonaparte subsequently to remove it from Pyrgisoma and to associate it with the Brown Pipilos (P. fuscus, &c.) as a separate genus Kieneria*. It is, in fact, rather difficult to decide whether to arrange Pyrgisoma kieneri with the other Pyrgisomas or with these Pipilos. But, upon the whole, we prefer to adopt the former course, as it would be unnatural to dissociate it from P. rubricatum, with which it so closely agrees in plumage. But P. rubricatum is certainly a typical species of Pyrgisoma, as is allowed by all writers upon the group. The five species of Pyrgisoma known to us may be arranged as follows:- Sect. a. Species pileo castaneo, gutture albo. a', pectore immaculuto. (1) PYRGISOMA BIARCUATUM. Pyrgita biarcuata, Prev. Voy. Ve'nus, Ois. t. 6. Pyrgisoma biarcuatum, Bp. Consp. p. 486; Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, pp. 5, 18. Hab. Guatemala (Salvin). Mus. P. L. S. et S.-G. * Compt. Rend. xl. p. 35G (1855). |