494 XOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXIV. lUlT. 



FURTHER NOTES ON SOUTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 

 By dr. ERNST HARTERT AND ARTHUR GOODSON. 



{See antea, pp. 410-419.) 



Note on Diglossopis caerulescens. 



THIS species was first described in 1856, from Caracas, Venezuela, but in the 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xi. p. 12 the habitat is given as " Andes of Venezuela, 

 Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru." This requires some alteration. First of all 

 the mountains near Caracas should not be called the " Andes," being — especially 

 faunistically — rather separated, as has been shown by Professor Sievers and 

 recent ornithological explorations. Then the forms from various parts of this 

 wide range are not all alike. 



The Peruvian bird is D. caerulescens pallida Berl. and Stolzm, 1896. 



The specimens from Colombia and the real Andes of Venezuela (Merida) are 

 darker and somc^^'hat more purplish, and the bill is slightly smaller. They are 

 evidently/), caerulescens saturata Todd. It is, however, not very enlightening to 

 find this form described from one spot. La Palmita, Santander, Colombia, one 

 male only being mentioned, and it being left to the imagination of the reader 

 whether only that single bird or a series had been examined. (Cf. Proc. Biol. Soc. 

 Washington, xxx. p. 12S, 1917.) It would have been desu'able to make this 

 clear, and to sajf whether birds from Merida and Bogota, which are represented 

 in most large bird-collections, are the same or not. According to Hellmaj^r 

 specimens from Merida are again " darker and more uniform bluish "' than 

 Bogota ones ; our material is not sufficient to be certain about this, as we have 

 only four Bogota skins to compare with ten from Merida. However this may 

 be, it is quite certain that the topo-typical birds from Caracas are quite distinct, 

 being paler and less purplish on the upperside, paler underneath, chin less 

 blackish, and the bill longer. ^Ve have received fine skins from near Caracas 

 from Mr. S. M. Klages. 



Mecocerculus leucophrys nigriceps Chapm. 



Mecocerculus nigriceps Chapman, Bull. Amer. Mvs. Nat. Hist. xii. p. 154 (18!)9 — Described from a 



single specimen, not sexed, from Los Palmales, State of Cumana, Venezuela). 

 Elainea gularis Madarasz, Ann. Miis. Nat. Hiingar. i. p. 462 (1903 — Andes o£ Merida, Escorial). 



Messrs. Hellmayr and Seilern (Arch. /. Nafurg. Ixxviii. p. 72, 1912) say that 

 they cannot sejjarate Venezuelan specimens from M. leucophrys setophagoides 

 from Bogota, but we cannot agree with them. Not only is the upper surface 

 of Bogota specimens darker and browner, in Venezuelan ones paler and more 

 olivaceous, with but a slight greenish tinge, especially on the lower back and 

 rump, but the wings in the latter are also shorter. The wings of the Venezuelan 

 birds range from 60 mm. (Hellmayr's measurement of 58 is probably incorrect, as 

 he has not stretched the wing) to 65 and even 66, whUe in Bogota birds they 

 vary from 66 to 72 and even 73 — doubtless the smaller specimens being females, 

 the larger males, though the sexing on some of our skins does not agree, but 

 must be incorrect. 



