CYANOLYCA. 497 
This Jay appears to be extremely local, and its range restricted to Western Mexico 
from San Blas to Acapulco, in both of which places specimens were obtained by the 
officers of the French exploring frigate the ‘Venus.’ The only examples we have seen 
to which a precise locality was attached are those obtained by Xantus in the State of 
Colima, one of which was kindly given us by the authorities of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution. The figure of this bird in the ‘ Magasin de Zoologie’ represents the bill yellow; 
but perhaps this is a variable rather than a sexual character, as in our example, marked 
a female, the bill is black; the sex of the latter, however, may have been wrongly 
determined. In the allied species, C. beecheyi and C. yucatanica, the bill in the male is 
black, in the female yellow. 
B. Pedes flavi, rostrum in mari nigrum, in femina flavum ; venter omnino niger. 
2. Cyanolyca beecheyi. 
Pica beecheyi, Vig. Zool. Journ. iv. p. 353°; Zool. Beechey’s Voy., Birds, p. 22, t. 6’. 
Cyanocorax beecheyi, Finsch, Abh. nat. Ver. zu Bremen, i. p. 333°. 
Cyanocitta beecheyi, Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 283°; Scl. & Salv. P. Z.S. 1876, p. 270°. 
Xanthura beecheyi, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 133°. 
Cyanocitta crassirostris, Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 378". 
Cyanocorax geoffroyi, Bp. Compt. Rend. xxxi. p. 564°. 
Lette purpurea ; alis et cauda saturatioribus; capite toto cum collo et corpore subtus nigerrimis; rostro nigro, 
pedibus pallide corylinis. Long. tota 16-0, ale 6-8, caude 7-7, rostri a rictu 1°8, tarsi 2-0. (Descr. maris 
ex Mazatlan, Mexico. Maus. nostr.) 
@ mari similis, sed rostro flavo distinguenda. 
Hab. Muxico, Mazatlan (Grayson? *, Bischoff'*, Forrer), Tres Marias Is. (Xantus*), San 
Blas (Mus. Paris). 
Grayson, who was well acquainted with this bird, says that it is much more abundant 
in the State of Sinaloa than further south; he usually met with it among the low 
scrubby forests of the poorer lands of that State, to which it seems more partial than to 
the rank woods found in some parts of the country. Its food consists of grubs, beetles, 
and various kinds of insects, also many kinds of fruit; it is likewise very fond of meat 
and corn when to be had. ‘The iris of the male, he says, is yellow, while that of the 
female is grey. 
The types described by Vigors were obtained during Beechey’s voyage, and figured in 
the volume describing the expedition; but these specimens seem to have been lost, as 
they are not extant in the British Museum. It was subsequently obtained by the 
officers of the French frigate ‘ Venus,’ who visited this portion of the Mexican coast; 
one of these examples, from Mazatlan, Bonaparte described under the name of Cyano- 
corax geoffroyi, the type so marked being now in the Paris Museum. This species also 
occurs on the Tres Marias Islands, where Xantus found it, but where neither Grayson 
nor Forrer met with it. 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Aves, Vol. I., April 1887. 63 
