60 Nelson Description of New Birds from Mexico. 



Averages of 4 males: wing 134.2; tail 72; culmen 11.1; tarsus 13.2; 

 depth of fork of tail 18.2. 



Averages of 4 males of Progne dominicensis (from West Indies) : wing 

 144.5; tail 75; culmen 11.9; tarsus 15.1; depth of fork of tail 20.5. 



P. dominicensis (Gmel. ) of the West Indies is the only species with which 

 P. sinalote need be compared. The latter may be distinguished by its 

 smaller size, pure white under tail coverts, glossy black tips of feathers 

 on dorsal surface (overlying the glossy blue-black of general color), and 

 the steel-blue-black as contrasted with the decidedly purplish-blue-black 

 of dominicensis. The general appearance of the two species is very similar. 



\Ye found P. sincdote at an altitude of about 3500 feet on the western 

 slope of the Sierra Madre in Sinaloa. They were seen in only one place, 

 at the upper border of the tropical zone about the point of a ridge facing 

 the hot lowlands. A flock of from twenty to thirty passed several hours 

 each day, circling about the hillslope in pursuit of insects. The flock 

 was made up entirely of males and no females were seen. A native 

 hunter living near the place where the birds were found told me that 

 they occur at this point throughout the year. He could give no infor 

 mation about their nesting haunts, which were probably not far from 

 this place. We looked for them without success when we went into the 

 same mountain a little farther to the south. 



It was unexpected to find in northwestern Mexico a species so like the 

 West Indian one and so different from the two species of the genus which 

 range over the mainland of central and eastern Mexico. 



Phcenicothraupis rubicoides roseus subsp. nov. Rosy Tanager. 



Type No. 156121, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll. Ad. cT, 

 Arroyo de Juan Sanchez (50 miles north of Ixtapa, Jalisco), Territory of 

 Tepic, Mexico, April 5, 1897. Collected by E. W. Nelson and E. A. 

 Goldman. 



Distribution. Basal slopes of mountains in western Tepic and Jalisco, 

 Mexico. 



Description of type. Crown rich dark vermilion-red, bordered along the 

 sides by black ; forehead, sides of head, neck, and remainder of dorsal 

 surface dull red with a wash of rose color ; wing feathers dark brown bor 

 dered externally with same color as back ; tail dull red. Entire under 

 surface dull rose-red, deepest on throat and breast, lightest and clearest 

 on abdomen and crissum ; flanks washed with brown. Dimensions of 

 type : wing 92 ; tail 87 ; culmen 18; tarsus 26. 



In general the male of this bird has the rosy color of a pale specimen 

 of Phcenicothraupis rubra, very different from the brick-red of typical 

 P. rubicoides. It is nearer P. rubicoides affinis, from which the male is 

 distinguishable by its paler colors. The crest differs also in being a 

 deeper, more brilliant red than in either of the two other forms. The 

 female of P. r. roseus, compared with those of P. rubicoides and P. r. affinis, 

 has a more olive-green back with little trace of the brown so characteristic 

 of the others ; the yellow crest is much less strongly marked and has but 



