( 354 ) 

 3. *Microcerciilus marginatus marginatus (•^(■l). 



Ift'Uro'iiemis marghutt'is Suliiter, /*. X. N, 1H55, p. 1-15 [liogutii coll.- t^'pe uxainintHl]. 

 Hetcrnrnemis bicolur Des Miirs : in Castelnau, Vai/age. Oiscaux (1855) p. 51. [No locality ; tliu type 

 (which I examined) came from the Peruvian Amazons.] 



A single S jr., 23. xi. 05. No. 185. " Iris brown." 



This is the first record for Pari'i, extending the range of the species from the 

 upper l{io Negro (Marabitauas), where batterer collected four specimens, to the 

 Lower Amazons. The skin from Para agrees perfectly with a good series from 

 Ujijier Amazonia and Bogota collections. 



The various iiluniages of this species were not well understood hitherto, and 

 none of the authors who wrote upon the subject ai)i)ears to have recoguised that the 

 birds with dusky margins to the feathers of the pileum, throat and chest are 

 the youug, and those without these edges the adults of oue and the same species. 

 This is clearly proved by the series before me, where every possible transition 

 between the two extremes can be found. 



In North-western Ecuador M. m. marginatus is represented by a closely allied 

 form, to which Mr. Sharpe erroneously applied the name M. bicolor. I i>ropose 

 to call it 



Microcerculus marginatus occidentalis n. subsp. 



Similar to M. m. inarf/inatus, but the upper parts darker and less rufoscent» 

 the sides of the body much darker, deep chocolate brown with scarcely any rufous 

 tinge, and the whole abdomen crossed by broad blackish-brown subterminal bars. 

 The bill, too, is slenderer, and somewhat longer. 



Type in Tring Museum : <? ad., Lita, N.W. Ecuador, 3000 ft. elevation, 

 Oct. 4, 1899. No. 210. Wing 60, tail 23, bill ITJ mm. 



I examined more than twenty specimens of this form from various places in 

 N.W. Ecuador : Lita, Cachjjacu (3200 ft.), Pambilar (60 ft.), and Cacbavi (500 ft.). 

 The skins in the British Museum, said to be from Saraya^n, East Ecuador (Buckley), 

 and described by Sliarpe s.n. M. bicolor,] are perfectly identical with this series. 

 I feel perfectly sure that they never came from East Ecuador, where only 

 M. m. marginatus is found. Buckley was a very careless collector, and bis 

 specimens had no original labels, but were labelled afterwards by Gerrard, almost 

 iiivariulily " Sarayafn." Bnt as so many species which have only been found on the 

 western slopes of the Andes by Stolzmann, Goodfellow, Festa, Eraser, etc., and by 

 Mr. Rosenberg's correspondents, bear this locality ; and as we know that Buckley's 

 men, Villagomez and lllingworth, collected in Western Ecuador, there can be no 

 doubt that many of the specimens labelled '" Sarayafn " really came from western 

 Ecuador. 



Dr. Sharjie, when employing tlic name M. bicolor for (his western lurm, was 

 apparently misled by the superficial resemblance between his specimens from 

 " .Sarayacu " aud the type of M. bicolor, all being adult birds with jjlaiu white 

 foreneck and chest. By a singular coincidence all the specimens uf tJJC eastern furm I 

 before him were immature birds with dnsky margins to the feathers of the i'oreneck 

 and chest, aud therefore he regarded the coloration of these parts as the principal 

 difference between the two forms ; but, as 1 have jiointed out above, this is only due 

 to age, the adults of both forms having the throat and breast unbarred, jilain white. 



t Cat. Birds Brit. .ViM. v,i. p. 'i'.I.H. 



X Three from Biigoti (incluiling the type of II. margi)uitiis), one from liast J'eni (ux \xTrcaux). two 

 from I'ebas, aud one from t'Lamicuros, N.E. I'eru. 



