226 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 



THE IDENTITY OF HYLOPHILUS LEUCOPHRYS LAFRESNAYE. 



The type of Hylophilus leucophrys Lafresnaye (Rev. Zool., 1844, p. 81— 

 Colombia) which is now in the collection of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, proves to be identical with Vireosylva josephae (Sclater) (Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. London, 1859, p. 137, pi. 154 — PhaUatanga, Ecuador). 



Compared with a series of the various races of this species, we find the 

 type to agree best with birds from Colombia. The specimen is faded and 

 has become brownish above as in old Bogota skins, and the yellow of the 

 under parts is now duller. Sclater (Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XI, 1886, p. 246) 

 places Hylophilus leucophrys Lafr. in the synonymy of Chlorospingus super- 

 ciliaris Lafr. [ = Hemispingus superciliaris (Lafr.)], but Berlepsch omits the 

 name altogether in his "Revision der Tanagriden, " correctly assuming 

 that it did not belong to a tanager. Chapman (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 XXXVI, 1917, p. 540) says that the Colombian birds are larger than those 

 from Ecuador. They may be separable, in which case the name Vireosylva 

 josephae (Sclater) will be available for the Ecuadorean form. 



At present we recognize four forms as follows : 



1. Vireosylva leucophrys leucophrys (Lafresnaye). 



2. Vireosylva leucophrys mirandae (Hartert). 



3. Vireosylva leucophrys chiriquensis Bangs. 



4. Vireosylva leucophrys costaricensis Ridgway. 



— Outram Bangs and Thomas E. Penard. 



NOTE ON LAMPROPELTIS MEXICANA (GARMAN). 



While tabulating characters of snake genera I noticed that Oreophis 

 Duges differed only slightly from Lampropeltis. On looking the matter 

 up, it became apparent that Oreophis boulengeri Duges (1897, Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. London, p. 284) from Guanajuato, Mexico, is a strict synonym of 

 Ophibolus triangulus mexicanus Garman (1883, Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., 

 (7), 3, p. 66) from San Luis Potosi, Mexico. This gives a third specimen 

 and second locality for this rare snake and affords an opportunity to erase 

 a genus and a species from an overcrowded list. 



The dentition ascribed to Oreophis is obviously abnormal, differing from 

 that of Lampropeltis in having four teeth in the middle of the maxillary 

 shorter than the rest. In all the other characters, especially in the pecuhar 

 head coloration, the description agrees well with the types of Carman's 

 species which I have just examined. 



The scale formula for this third specimen is Sc. 22; V, 185 + 1; C. 44; 



L. 8-9; T. 2-3; 40 red saddles on body and tail. Total length 387 mm., 



tail 60 mm. 



— E. R. Dunn. 



