246 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.93 



so that these may be taken as topotypical of jalapensis. There is also 

 an old skin from Mirador near Veracruz city that should be con- 

 sidered as from near the type locality of vetula; and, in addition, 

 there is the excellent series of 10 skins from Tres Zapotes. Except 

 for one specimen to be mentioned immediately, these all agree in 

 general in the buffy color of the tail tip and in dark-colored under- 

 pays when compared with a good series from Tampico north to the 

 Brownsville area in Texas. These latter have the tail tip definitely 

 white and the breast appreciably paler. One of the skins from Jico 

 has the tail tip quite white, there being only a slight buffy tinge, 

 so that it shows approach to the more northern form. 



From consideration of this material, it appears that the area 

 around Veracruz city and around Jalapa represents a region of in- 

 tergradation between the more northern, lighter-breasted form with 

 white tail tips and the darker race with buffy extremities on the 

 rectrices that ranges south through southern Veracruz state into 

 Guatemala. We may expect in this intermediate area a mingling 

 of characters, which is found in the specimen from Jico mentioned 

 above with the tail tippings definitely white. It seems reasonable 

 to consider the type of vetula, which is described as having the third 

 pair of rectrices tipped with pure white and the others a little duller 

 also as an intermediate bird. The situation is highly unsatisfac- 

 tory, but it appears logical in view of what has been said to give 

 the name vetula to birds from Veracruz city and Jalapa southward, 

 with jalapensis as a synonym, and to retain mccallii for the north- 

 ern race found from Tamaulipas to the lower Rio Grande area. 

 (This is in accordance also with the opinion of Hellmayr and 

 Conover. 18 ) 



The birds from Tres Zapotes, therefore, are identified as typical 

 vetula. 



Family ARAMIDAE 



ARAMUS GUARAUNA DOLOSUS Peters 



Aram ns pictus dolosus Peters, Occ. Pap. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 5, Jan. 30, 

 1925, p. 144 (Bolson, Costa Rica). 



Near Tres Zapotes, I flushed one of these birds April 13, 1939, at 

 the border of a small lagoon choked with grassy vegetation and 

 watched it fly across into swampy woods. Carriker saw a pair at 

 Tlacotalpam and secured a female at a lagoon north of Hueyapa 

 on May 3, 1940. The species is not common in this region. 



18 Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Zool. ser., vol. 13, pt. 1, No. 1, Apr. 30, 1942, pp. 169-171. 



