456 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [April, 



Dendrocincla merula (Lichtenstein). 



DendrocoJapfes meruln Lichtenstein, Abhandl. Kon. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 



1820, p. 208. 

 Dendrocincla casfanoptera Ridgway, Proc. United States Nat, Mus., X, 1888, 



pp. 490, 494 (Diamantina, Lower Amazon, Brazil). 



Type Locality. — Cayenne, French Guiana. 



Geographical Distribution. — Valley of the Amazon, to eastern Peru; 

 north to British Guiana and the Orinoco river, Venezuela. 



This very distinct species resembles to some extent D. tiirdina, but 

 is darker above; very much darker, more olivaceous below; the throat 

 is more whitish ; the pileum without pale shaft streaks ; the wings are 

 clear chestnut instead of tinged with ohvaceous, being thus more con- 

 trasted with the color of the back; and the hning of the wing is darker. 



The specimen of this species in the Lafresnaye collection, marked 

 ''type" (No, 2,304), is probably only the specimen used by Lafresnaye 

 for descriptive purposes, as Lichtenstein's original example is still in 

 the Berlin Museum. Mr. Ridgway's Dendrocincla castanoptera^* is 

 regrettably a synonym of D. merula, for the type and one other speci- 

 men now in the U. S. National Museum do not differ in any essential 

 respect from two examples in the collection of the American Museum 

 of Natural History, taken by S. M. Klages at Suapure, Venezuela, nor 

 from the Lafresnaye specimen above mentioned. The two examples 

 of castanoptera are considerably smaller than the Lafresnaye specimen 

 of merula with which Mr, Ridgway compared them, but this is certainly 

 but a sexual distinction. This sexual difference may easily be appre- 

 ciated by reference to the following comparative measurements: 



Dendrocincla olivacea olivacea Lawrence. 



Dendrocincla olivacea Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lye Nat. Hist., VII, 1862, p. 

 466. 



Type Low/iY;/.— Panama R. R., Atlantic side of Isthmus of Panama. 



Geographical Distribution. — Panama to southern Honduras. 



Similar to D. fuUginosa. but darker above and below; the exposed 

 surface of wing-quills much more olivaceous than the tail, instead of 

 being of the same color. From D. menda it differs in having the 



» Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., X, 18S8. pp. 490, 494. 



15 Lafresnaye Collection, No. 2,304, the reputed "type" of Dendrocincla merula. 



