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CRITICAL NOTES ON THE TYPES OF LITTLE-KNOWN 

 SPECIES OF NEOTROPICAL BIRDS. 



By C!. E. HELLMAYR. 



PART I. 



"VTTHEN I began, six }'ears ago, to study the neotropical aviiauna and to 

 ' V collect material for my proposed work on tlie Birds of Brazil, it soon 

 became clear to me that there was a great uncertainty in the nomenclatnre of 

 many species, and that a thorough revision of those types about which any doubts 

 existed would be very useful ; and notwithstanding its many apparent difficulties, 

 I decided to undertake this. Thus, during the last four years, I have carefully 

 -examined a great number of types in various museums of Europe, and I intend 

 to publish the results of these stndies in a series of papers of which this f(.irms 

 the first instalment. 



Remarks on some donbtful or little-known species have already been published 

 by me in various periodicals, also a ])aper dealing with certain genera oi Fritigillidae 

 in the Verhamllungen der zoolog.-hotan. Gesellscha/t , of Vienna, 19(J4. pp. olG-S". 

 A more extensive memoir, in which many types of Tschudi, Heinhardt, Cabanis 

 and Pelzeln are discussed, appeared in the Journal fiiv Ornitlwloyie, I'JOo. pp. 1-33, 

 nnder the joint authorship of Count Berlepsch and myself An account of the birds 

 described by Spix in his great work, Avium Brasiliae Species Novae, has lately 

 been issued ; and critical notes on the types of the Tracheophonac in the Paris 

 Museum, by Meuegaux and myself, have been published in some French 

 periodicals.* 



The main object of the present paper is to clear up a number of the many 

 doubtful and little-known species preserved in the British Museum, but several 

 types belonging to the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris are also discussed. 

 A special paper will be devoted to many additional types of the French naturalists, 

 chiefly those of Lafresnaye and D'Orbiguy. 



My conclusions are, wherever possible, based on a large amount of material, 

 for the use of which I am much indebted to several kind friends, particularly 

 Count Berlepsch, Dr. H. 0. Forbes, Dr. E. Hartert, Dr. L. von Lorenz-Liburnau, of 

 Vienna, and the Hon. L. W. Rothschild, to all of whom my sincere thanks are 

 due. Neither must I forget to mention the late Professor Oustalet, and Dr. A. 

 Meneganx, who not only gave me free access to the treasures of the Paris Museum, 

 but also facilitated my work in every possible way. To Mr. Rothschild I am 

 specially obliged for kindly offering to publish these notes in the Novitates 

 Zoologicae. 



1. Cyanocorax inexpectatus Elliot = C. caeruleus (Vieill). 



Pica caenilm Vieillot, A'omc. Did. .vxvi. (1818) p. 126 (ex Azara : Paraguay). 



Cyanocorax Ileclelii Pelzeln, Sitz.-Ber. Akad. Wien xx. (185(i) p. 103 [Rio Boraxudo, near 



Paranagua, Parana], 

 Cyanocorax inexpectatus Elliot, Ibis, 1878. p. 55 [''south of Sao Paulo "]. 



1. Mus. Paris, av. juv. " Capt. de St. Paul. M. A. de Saint Hilaire. C. inex- 

 pectatus Elliot. Type de I'esp^ce." Wing 197 ; tail 172 mm. 



* Bull. Mus. Paris, 190,5. pp. 372-81; Mem. Soo. delist, nat. Autuii, xix, (I'Mii) pp. 43-12G; Hull. 

 Sao. Philom. Taris, 1906. pp. 21-58. 



