256 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 03 



AMAZON A AUTUMNALIS AUTUMN ALIS (Linnaeus) 



Psittacus autumnalis Linnaeus, Systema naturae, ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 102 

 (southern Mexico"). 

 This common parrot is represented by skins taken on March 8. 15, 

 and 23, 1939, and March 5 and 25, 19-10. They ranged in pairs in the 

 forest and morning and evening traveled across the sky uttering 

 harsh notes that to me often suggested loud, ribald speech. Like 

 01 hers of the family, they remain in pairs. There has been much 

 speculation on the part of aviculturists on methods of determining 

 sex in living birds, so that on March 23, when I killed a pair, I 

 was interested to note that in the female the head was distinctly 

 smaller, and the anal opening larger, though the birds were not in 

 breeding condition. In skinning these two, the skin of the neck in 

 the female passed easily over the head, while in the male it was 

 forced over with difficulty after considerable manipulation. 



Family CUCULIDAE 



PIAYA CAYANA THERMOPHILA Sclater 



Piaya thermopMla P. L. Sclatee, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1859 (Feb. 1860), 

 p. 36S (Jalapa, Veracruz, Mexico). 



Fairly common near Tres Zapotes where specimens were taken on 

 March 9, 15, and 16, and April 13, 1939, and on March 3, 1940. In 

 addition, Carriker collected specimens on the Cerro de Tuxtla on 

 May 6 and 9 and near Tlacotalpam on February 7, 1940. The taller 

 second-growth of abandoned milpas, and the small tracts of thickets 

 and low forest bordering the fields, were their principal haunts, 

 though I saw them occasionally in heavier forest in the more open 

 tree tops, as at Arroyo Corredor. Their colors and their long slender 

 forms, with their manner of movement, are excellent reason for the 

 name of squirrel cuckoo, as .they often suggest these mammals. 

 While quiet in general, at times they move rapidly through the 

 branches. 



CROTOPHAGA SULCIROSTRIS SULCIROSTRIS Swainson 



Orotophaga sulcirostris Swainson, Phil. Mag., new ser., vol. 1, 1827, p. 440 

 (Temascaltepec, Mexico). 



Common through the fields and pastures near Tres Zapotes, where 

 I shot one March 18, 1939. Carriker collected one in the sandhills 

 near El Cone jo, February 12. They were known as tigue. 



Frequently in the evening a little flock came through the trees at 

 the edge of camp on their way to a roost, traveling always in the 

 same direction, and I gained the impression that the bands were 

 rather sedentary in that each had a limited range. On the day that 



" See Peters, Check-list of birds of the world, vol. 3, 1937, p. 219. 



