VOL. XX, PP. 29-30 MARCH 27, 1907 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



V 



A NEW RACE OF THE HEPATIC TANAGER. 

 BY OUTRAM BANGS. 



Since first described by Swainson in 1827,* Piranga hepatica 

 has never been divided into subspecies. There are, however, 

 two very well marked geographic races of this tanager, one a 

 large, dull-colored bird ranging from the table lands and sur 

 rounding mountains of southwestern Mexico north to Arizona 

 and New Mexico, the other, smaller and much more intensely 

 colored, occupying the mountains of eastern Mexico from Vera 

 Cruz north to Nuevo Leon. 



Swainson gave the type locality of his Piranpa hepatica as 

 " Real del Monte, Hidalgo," which Mr. E. W. Nelson tells me 

 is Temescaltipec, Mexico, of recent maps. There are no skins 

 available from this immediate place, but numerous specimens 

 in the Biological Survey collection from localities in the same 

 general region are all referable to the ordinary large, dull-col 

 ored form, which, moreover, Swain son's description ("Grayish 

 livid, beneath bright red, t. 1., 8; bill, f ; wing, 4; tail, 3i; 

 tarsi, f "), brief as it is, seems to indicate. The new form is 

 therefore that of eastern Mexico. 



The differences in color between the two races of Piranga he 

 patica are much like those that separate the eastern from the 

 western form of Piranga bidentata, and the pale and dark race 

 of each species has in part the same geographic distribution, 

 Piranga bidentata bidentata, the pale western race, occurring 

 with Piranga hepatica hepatica, the pale race of that species in 

 Mexico and adjacent States, and P. bidentata sanguinolenta occu 

 pying the same region with P. hepatica deoctra, both richly col 

 ored races, in eastern States from Nuevo Leon to Vera Cruz. 



The new form of the hepatic tanager may be known as 



* Philo. Mag., New Series I, p. 438, 1827. 



5 PROC. BIOL. Soc. WASH., VOL. XX, ; 1907. 



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