PIAYA. 531 
2. Piaya mexicana. 
Cuculus mexicanus, Sw. Phil. Mag. new ser. i. p. 440°. 
Piaya mexicana, Scl. P. Z. 8. 1859, p. 888’. 
Pyrrhococcyx mexicanus, Finsch, Abhandl. naturw. Ver. zu Bremen, 1870, p. 356°. 
Piaya melheri, Dugés, La Nat.i. p. 138 *. 
Piaya ridibundus, Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 293°; Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 33 (?)°; 
Sumichrast, La Nat. v. p. 239 (?)”. 
Piaya cayenensis, Salv. P. Z. 8. 1883, p. 426°. 
Piaya cayana, Ferrari-Perez, Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. ix. p. 162°; Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xix. 
p. 373 (partim) °°. 
P. cayane similis, sed supra omnino pallidior et rufescentior: subtus quoque pallidior, ventre imo, tectricibus 
subcaudalibus et tibiis griseis, quam abdomen reliquum paulo saturatioribus ; caude rectricibus lateralibus 
subtus et supra rufescentibus, apicibus albis et fascia subterminali conspicua nigra notatis. Long. tota 18-0, 
alee 0-2, caude rectr. med. 12°6, rectr. lat. 6-0, rostri a rictu 1:25, tarsi 1-4. (Descr. femine ex Chietla, 
Puebla, Mexico. Mus. nostr.) . 
3 femine similis. 
Hab. Mexico, Mazatlan (Grayson °°, Xantus*, Bischoff’), San Blas (W. B. Richardson), 
Hacienda de San Marcos (W. Lloyd), Zapotlan (W. B. Richardson), Guanajuato, 
Guadalajara (Dugés), Bolafios, Colima (W. B. Richardson), Tupila R., Plains of 
Colima (Xantus*), Temiscaltepec (Bullock !), Acapulco (A. H. Markham ®, Mrs. H. 
H. Smith), Xautipa in Guerrero (Mrs. H. H. Smith), Chietla in the Canton de 
Cordova (ferrari-Perez ®), Juchatengo (M. Trujillo), Juquila (Boucard *), Oaxaca 
(Fenochio), Tehuantepec? (Sumichrast °"). 
This is a Western Mexican form of the eastern and southern P. cayana, and is found 
as far north as the neighbourhood of Mazatlan, and thence southwards through the 
States of Jalisco, Guerrero, and Oaxaca. On the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as already 
stated, it blends with P. cayana, and beyond this district no trace of it is found in 
Central America, but in the far south the peculiar feature of the rufous tail reappears. 
In size it slightly exceeds its close ally, and this, too, is characteristic of the southern 
form. | | 
Swainson’s type was obtained by Bullock at Temiscaltepec 1, on the western edge of 
the Mexican tableland; and it hag been found since that time by all collectors who 
have worked in the western parts of the republic, from the edge of the highlands to 
the sea-coast. 
Its habits, of which nothing is on record, doubtless resemble those of P. cayana. 
8. Piaya minuta. 
Cuculus cyanus, var. 8, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 170°. 
Cuculus minutus, Vieill. N. Dict. d’ Hist. N. viii. p. 2777. 
Piaya minuta, Gray, Gen. Birds, i. p. 457°; Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 195*; 1879, p. 537°; 
Layard, Ibis, 1873, p. 393°; Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xix. p. 3787. 
? Cuculus rutilus, Ullig. Abh. Ak. Wissensch. Berl. 1812, p. 224°. 
Piaya rutila, Lawr. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. vii. p. 300’. 
