BANGS AND PENARD: SOME CRITICAL NOTES ON BIRDS. 



23 



The two small specimens which Noble (loc. cit, p. 372) considered 

 a different species, to which he applied the name Aestrelata haesitaia, 

 we do not regard specifically different from the larger birds. The 

 difference in the nostril tubes pointed out by Noble does not appear 

 to be due to a normal concUtion, but rather one of distortion in drying. 

 Noble refers P. meridionalis Lawrence, which is a very large bird, to 

 his P. haentata on the ground that the nosti'il tubes (and coloration) 

 are like those of the small birds. In our opinion P. meridionalis is 

 P. haesitaia Kuhl with normal nostril tubes. At any rate there is 

 great variation in the specimens, and we refer the small birds which 

 Noble considered a different species to P. haesitaia Kuhl, rather than 

 to rename them on the e\adence at hand. 



A female taken at Pittsfield, N. H., August, 1893, by H. W. Osgood, 

 now in the collection of William Brewster (46,076) has normal nostril 

 tubes, but is a small bird; it affords the following measurements: — 

 wing, 265; tail, 128; bill (to angle of mouth), 37; culmen, 32; tarsus, 

 35; middle toe, with claw, 50. 



Lafresnaye's reference to two species, a larger and smaller, which 

 arrive at different times of the year and nest at different heights, is 

 interesting, but there is no reason for assuming that the two small 

 specimens in the M. C. Z. represent the smaller species referred to by 

 Lafresnaye. It is also interesting to note in this connection that 

 Pere Labat's illustration of the Diablotin (Nouv. voy., 1724, 2, p. 349) 

 represents a uniformly dark-colored bird, and on the next page he 

 writes, "son plumage est noir." 



Herpetotheres cachinnans queribundus, subsp. nov. 



Tijve.— M. C. Z. 7,792. Brazil: Pernambuco. J. C. Fletcher. 



Characters. — Similar to H. cachinnans cachinnans (Linne) of Guiana 

 but paler, the upper parts browner, much less blackish, the lower parts 

 whiter; similar also to H. c. chapmaili Bangs and Penard of Mexico 

 but slightly smaller and with very much less spotting on axillars and 

 lining of wing. 



