4 FIELD MUSEUM or NATURAL HISTORY ZOOLOGY, VOL. XII. 



The Field Museum collection contains ten specimens from the 

 State of Ceara and three from the State of Bahia, which are subspecies 

 of N. hirundinaceus, and the specimens from Ceara are nearer in general 

 coloration to Spix's colored plate of the species than those from Bahia. 

 Accepting without question that the illustration and description of 

 the white markings on the outer primaries of the type specimen, as 

 given by Hellmayr, is correct, we have three well-marked forms, which 

 may be recognized at once by the different white markings on the outer 

 primaries, and birds from Ceara also differ from Bahia specimens in 

 somewhat paler coloration, the belly more rufous (especially in females), 

 and the decidedly less strongly banded lower belly and ventral region. 

 In N. hirundinaceus hirundinaceus (Spix) there is no white on the outer 

 webs of (at least) the first and second outer primaries. In N. h. crissalis 

 (Cory) only the outer primary has the outer web without a white 

 patch, the second primary has the white bar on both webs, but the 

 shaft is black. In birds from Ceara all the outer primaries have the 

 white patch extending across both webs and the shafts of the feathers 

 in the white areas are white (not black). These differences (although 

 the white areas vary somewhat in shape and size) are constant in all 

 the ten specimens from Ceara and in the three from Bahia. The 

 form from the Province of Ceara being undescribed, I propose to 

 name it 



Nyctipolus hirundinaceus cearae subsp. nov. 



Type from Quixada, Ceara, Brazil. Male, No. 47170, Field 

 Museum of Natural History. Collected by Robert H. Becker, June 20, 



Similar to the male of AT. h. crissalis Cory, but the general plumage 

 somewhat paler, the belly more rufous (especially in females), and the 

 black bands on the lower belly narrower and less distinctly marked; 

 all outer primaries with white band crossing both webs, the shafts of 

 the feathers in the white areas being white. 



Wing, 120; tail, 90 mm. 



We have therefore three forms: 



(1) N. h. hirundinaceus (Spix). Type locality? Upper Amazon? 



(2) N. h. crissalis (Cory). Type locality Rio de Peixe, near 

 Queimados, Bahia. 



(3) N. h. cearae Cory. Type locality Quixada, Ceara. 



There seems to be a gradual regional diminution in extent of the 

 white markings on the primaries of this species from north to south. 

 In specimens from Ceara the white areas are most pronounced. In 

 those from the interior of Bahia they are less so, and from the fact 



