494 CORVIDA. 
Azurea; dorso et interscapulio obscurioribus ; loris nigricante-ceeruleis ; regione parotica quam pileus obscurior ; 
subtus griseus; ventre imo et crisso albicantibus ; tibiis griseis ; rostro nigro nonnunquam flavo variegato ; 
pedibus nigris. Long. tota 12:5, alz 7-0, caude rect. med. 6:5, rect. lat. 5-6, rostri a rictu 1:4, tarsi 1°6. 
(Descr. exempl. ex Jalapa, Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Mexico (Deppe), south side of the Rio Grande, Monterey (Couch '*), Real del 
Monte (Bullock), Guanajuato (Dugeés), near the city of Mexico (le Strange), plateau 
and alpine region of Vera Cruz (Swmichrast® '), Jalapa (Sallé, de Oca"). 
Some doubts hang around Bonaparte’s name Garrulus ultramarinus, and neither the 
authors of the ‘ History of North American Birds’ nor Mr. Sharpe give a very satisfactory 
account of it, and none of them seem to have examined a specimen exactly answering to 
Bonaparte’s description. Neither have we; but we altogether doubt the existence of 
two distinct species of this form being found in Mexico proper, and we think it more 
than probable that the squareness of the tail of Bonaparte’s type was due to the feathers 
being in a state of moult, or to the absence of the outer pair. At the same time we 
notice some variation in the graduation of the tail in the specimens before us; in one 
from Jalapa the difference in the length between the outermost and the middle feathers 
is nearly an inch. In Swainson’s type of A. sordida it is a little more than three- 
quarters of an inch, whilst in one of Sallé’s examples from Southern Mexico it is only 
half an inch. It is thus evident that the graduation of the tail is not a definite specific 
character. Thus the differences said to exist between A. ultramarina and A. sordida 
break down, and A. uwltramarina remains as the oldest title of the species, having been 
bestowed upon it by Bonaparte in 1825, Swainson’s name A. sordida and Wagler’s 
A. sieberi, both based upon Bullock’s specimens, dating from 1827. 
Two forms of this bird have been separated by North-American writers, namely 
A. couchi from the Rio Grande valley, and A. arizone from Arizona; the latter of these 
seems to be the most distinct, but it has not yet been noticed within our boundary. 
A. couchi seems to differ chiefly in size and in having the dorsal region rather greyer. 
It occurs near Monterey and in Chihuahua and at Parras. In Southern Mexico 
A. ultramarina has a wide range throughout the plateau and alpine region, and it 
has been observed by most collectors who have worked in the upland country. Sumi- 
chrast places its range in altitude between 5000 and 11,000 feet above the level of 
the sea. 
B. Unicolor, corpore subtus cum gula dorso concoloribus. 
8. Aphelocoma unicolor. 
Cyanocorax unicolor, DuBus, Bull. Ac. Brux. xiv. pt. 2, p. 103°; Esq. Orn. t. 17°; Sel. P. Z. 8. 
1857, p. 204°; 1859, p. 365°; Schl. Mus. P.-B. i. Coraces, p. 49°. 
Cyanocitta unicolor, Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 878°; Scl. P. Z. S. 1864, p. 175°; Salv. Ibis, 1866, 
p. 194°. 
