NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 



133 



out teeth ; less ashy color above, aud less restrictiou of the red below, the 

 whiter lores and more reddish cheeks. 



/fa6.— Paraguay. Type 20996, J>. Expl. Parana, Capt. T. J. Page, U. S. N. 



I do not feel entirely sure thai this bird is the species of D'Orbigny, nor 

 that it may not be undescribed. I present it, however, under the above name 

 for further consideration. 

 Pyranga testacea, Sclater and Salvin. 



Pijranga testacea, Sclater and Salvin, Pr. Z. S. 1868, 388, Veragua. 



Sp. ch. Wing 3-48, tail 3-12, culmen -TG, tarsus -80. Bill very large and 

 much swollen ; very broad at base, 

 becoming quickly compressed to- 

 ward tip; tooth on commissure ^^^ 's^ ^^^ (^ 

 very prominent and conspicuous. (<Z~''^^ — -^_^ "^-C]^ > 52355 

 Upper mandible nearly pure black, ^""""^-..^ 7- ^'"^^■^^ C 

 lower more plumbeous. Color 

 generally very dark testaceous red, 

 becoming gradually purer brown- 

 ish scarlet medially beneath ; lores, suborbital space and extreme border of 

 chin grayish. 



Female. — Olivaceous green above, and deep olivaceous orange anteriorly 

 beneath, the gradation of the tints exactly as in the male. 



Hab. — Veragua, Costa Rica (Angostura), Rio Manati and Belize. 



Described from a type specimen presented to the Smithsonian Institution 

 by Mr. Salvin. 



3. The Smaller Quiscali of the United States. 



In making an examination of a very large series of the smaller Grakles of 

 the United States, I was struck by a radical difference in form and color be- 

 tween specimens from the Atlantic and interior States, which I find to be 

 sufficiently constant to warrant the separation into two distinct varieties if not 

 species. 



Professor Baird refers to this difference in his work on the Birds of N. Am. 

 (see p. 556), and mentions its constancy, which I have been able to confirm. 



The following diagnoses are intended to express the distinctions referred to : 



QuiscAiiUS puRPUREus, Bartram. 



Gracula quiscala, Linn., Syst. Nat. ed. 10. I, 1758, \0Q {Monedula purpurea, 

 Cat.) — Wils. Am. Orn. Ill, 1811, 44, pi. 21, f. 4. Gracula purpurea, Bartram, 

 Travels Florida, 1791, 290. Quiscalus purpureus, Cassin, Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 

 403. Quiscalus versicolor, Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. 28, 1819, 488— Baird, B. N. A. 

 555. 



Fig. 1. 



Sp. ch. Length about 12-50, wing 5-50, tail 4-92, culmen 1-24, tarsus 1-28. 

 Second quill longest, hardly perceptibly (only -07 of an inch) longer than the 

 first and third, which are equal; projection of primaries beyond secondaries 

 1-56; graduation of tail 

 •92. General appearance 

 glossy black ; whole 

 plumage, however, 

 brightly glossed with red- 

 dish violet, bronzed pur- 

 ple, steel blue and green ; 

 the head and neck with 

 purple prevailing, this 

 being in some individu- 

 als more blueish, in 

 others more reddish ; 

 where most blue this is ''■66^h7 



1869.] 



