30 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



regard to the source of the specimen, indicated on the first of these 

 labels, is reflected in the guarded statement made by Lafresnaye in 

 the original description, "II nous a ete vendu comme du Mexique." 



A careful examination of the type-specimen reveals that the narrow 

 bars and transverse markings on the breast, referred to by Ridgway 

 (loc. cit., p. 385), are on a few leathers which do not belong to the bird, 

 but which had been glued on by the taxidermist to cover some bare 

 spots. The feathers on these patches are wider and of a wholly difPer- 

 ent shape from those belonging to the bird. The bird's own breast- 

 feathers are spotted as in H. balteatus, and not barred or lined. We 

 cannot detect any difference in the width of the white and dusky 

 bands across the remiges from those in the specimens of H. balteatus 

 from Peru which we have before us, and with which the type of H. 

 pallescens agrees in size and very closely in all respects except that the 

 darker markings are paler and more grayish brown instead of black- 

 ish, due to fading from long exposure to the light. 



Hylocichla minima minima (Lafresnaye). 



Turdns viinimus Lafresnaye, Rev. zool., 1848, p. 5 (" Habitat ad 

 Bogotam, in Nova-Grenada"). 



Type.— M. C. Z. 76,498, Lafr. coll. 3,54L 



Hylocichla aliciae hickncUi Ridgway, Proc. U. S. N. M., 6 April, 

 1882, 4, p. 377 (Shde Mt., Ulster Co., New York). 



Apparently no ornithologist of the present generation had examined 

 the type of Turdns minimus Lafresnaye, until we recently did so. By 

 common consent the name has appeared in all modern works among 

 the synonyms of Hylocichla ustulata swainsoni (Cabanis). We were 

 therefore surprised upon comparing the type to find that not only is 

 it an Alice's Thrush and not a Swainson's Thrush, but that it is an 

 extreme example of the southern form of Alice's Thrush, always known 

 as Hylocichla aliciae bicknelli Ridgway. If the specimen really came 

 from Bogota as Lafresnaye thought it did, it is also the southernmost 

 record for the subspecies, which otherwise has not been found winter- 

 ing in South America. In order to be certain that our identification 

 might not be questioned, we have submitted the type to the following 

 American ornithologists, Messrs. Batchelder, Brewster, Faxon, 

 Oberholser, and Richmond, who all agree with us. 



The two subspecies are: — 



Hylocichla minima minima (Lafr.). 



Hylocichla minima aliciae (Baird). 



