298 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 93 



that Hellmayr's comment on this species 52 that there are only 10 or 

 12 recorded specimens is no criterion of its abundance, I saw dozens 

 of them in life. Further, it appears to me from the observations of 

 my one season that two species are involved, a conclusion that is 

 substantiated by the fact that both morio and mexicanus show varia- 

 tion in color in different parts of the range. Moreover, the color 

 variations are not correlated in the two types, since according to 

 present treatment P. m. mexicanus is found through the area in- 

 habited by the two accepted subspecies of Psilorhinus morio. Also, 

 the type with plain tail, morio, does not occur south of Chiapas, while 

 two races of mexicanus extend through the area from Guatemala to 

 the Almirante region in Panama. 



Under the name of pepe these jays are known to every country 

 dweller, as they are vociferous and omnipresent. At our camp the 

 two jays always ushered in the dawn, since at the faintest hint of 

 light in the east, even as early as a few minutes after 4 a. m., scattered 

 individuals came flying out over the pastures calling, while it was 

 still far too dark to see them in the sky. In fact, their querulous, 

 complaining notes were often mingled with the last calls of the 

 goatsuckers (Nyctidromus) , whose songs had continued throughout 

 the night, long before any of the other daytime birds were astir. 



The pepes were the subject of universal complaint among the farm- 

 ers because of their destruction of corn. When the ears had formed 

 in the fields children or, if there were no children in the family, older 

 people went out at dawn into the milpas where, with shouting and 

 stones cast by hand or from slings, they endeavored to keep the jays, 

 the grackles, and the smaller blackbirds on the move. As I traveled 

 along the trails, jays were often in evidence, calling frequently when 

 they saw me and often coining down within 30 or 40 feet to scold me 

 with jerking tails and wings and much peering and posturing. Oc- 

 casionally they were shy, but this was unusual, as they were molested 

 little by shooting because of the cost of ammunition. 



Often they flew out with a curious hesitant but steady flapping of 

 wings, calling loudly and at the same time producing a curious snap- 

 ping sound. Sometimes this latter noise was heard when the birds 

 were not calling, and almost on my first day afield here I saw when 

 birds flew overheat a yellow spot appear on the breast, though when at 

 rest this was not visible. In handling my first specimen, I found this 

 spot of color was really a pouch of somewhat thickened skin, located 

 over the junction of the two branches of the furculum. In a fresh- 

 killed bird I could sometimes inflate and deflate this pouch by com- 

 pressing and releasing the posterior part of the body so that air was 

 driven into it and then withdrawn. The fully inflated sac was Some- 

 s' Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., zool. ser., vol. 13, pt. 7, 1934, p. 15. 



