General Notes. 225 



columbiana, according to Rhoads, Reprint of Guthrie's Geography, 1894, 

 Appendix, p. 36. As this leaves the Picus torquatus of Wilson without a 

 name, it may be called Asyndesmus lewisi. /. H. Riley. 



DESCRIPTION OF AN ADULT FEMALE EUPHONIA SUPPOSED 

 TO BE EUPHONIA GNATHO (CABANIS).* 



The status of Euphonia gnat.ho (Cabanis) t has never been satisfactorily 

 determined. It is admitted into the Biologia Centrali- Americana (Aves, i, 

 1883, 262) as possibly a distinct species but the doubt is expressed whether 

 it is really distinct from E. hirundinacea Bonaparte, on the strength of an 

 adult male from Tempate, on the Gulf of Nicoya, western Costa Rica. It is 

 likewise admitted into the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum (xi, 

 1886, 76), but with reservations as to its validity. 



The bird described by Cabanis was an adult male, the exact locality 

 whence it came being unknown or at least not stated. It was compared 

 with E. chalybea (Mikan) of southeastern Brazil, from which it was said to 

 differ in having the yellow color of the underparts, etc., more saturated. The 

 male from Tempate, western Costa Rica, described by Salvin and Godman, 

 is said to agree "in every respect except in the greater development of the 

 bill " with the adult male of E. hirundinacea. 



On March 8, 1905, while awaiting the arrival of our boatman to take us 

 back to camp, Mr. Jose C. Zeledon and I put in a short time shooting birds 

 from a wild fig tree on the bank of the Rio Grande de Tarcoles, a short dis 

 tance above the mouth of that stream. Among the birds secured on that 

 occasion is an adult female Euphonia which is apparently referable to E. 

 gnatho; at least it can not be referred to any other known species. The 

 only one which it at all closely resembles is E. hirundinacea, but that it is 

 perfectly distinct there can not be the slightest doubt, the bill being very 

 much deeper, less compressed terminally, and with the culmen and gonys 

 much more strongly convex, and the coloration distinctly different. It 

 may be described as follows : 



Euphonia gnatho (Cabanis) (?) 



Adult female. Above dark olive-green (becoming brighter on rump and 

 upper tail-coverts) distinctly glossed with metallic bluish green ; beneath 

 bright yellow shaded laterally 'with pale olive-green, the median portion 

 of the throat pale gray, tinged with olive-yellow, the lower abdomen white, 

 in abrupt contrast with the bright olive-yellow of flanks and pure yellow 

 of upper abdomen and median portion of breast, and under tail-coverts ; 



* By permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



t Phonasca gnatho Cabanis, Journ. fur Orn., viii, Sept., 1860 (published Jan., 1861), 335 

 (Costa Rica; coll. Berlin Mus.). Euphonia gnatho Lawrence, Ann. Lye. N. H. New York, 

 ix, 1868, 98 ; Frantzius, Journ. fur. Orn , 1869, 297; (?) Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr. Am., 

 Aves, i, 1883, 262 ( Tempate, Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica) : (?) Sclater Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., 

 xi., 1886, 76 (Tempate and Turrialba, Costa Rica) ; Zeledon, Anal. Mus. Nac. Costa 

 Rica, i, 1887, IQ9. Euphonia hirundinacea (not of Bonaparte) Ridgway, Bull. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus., No. 50, pt. ii, 1902, 25, part (in synonomy). 



