Oy4 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIUJNAL MUSEUM. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OP SAYORNIS. 



a. Abdomen white or pale yellow; outermost (tenth) primary not longer than fifth; 

 wing very little longer than tail. (Sayornis.) 

 b. Above grayish olive; under parts mostly dull white or very pale yellow. (Eastern 

 temperate North America, south in winter to Cuba and southern Mexico.) 



Sayornis phoebe (p. 594) 

 bb. Upper parts blackish (the back more slaty); under parts dull black, except 

 abdomen and (sometimes) under tail-coverts. {Sayornis nigricans.) 

 c. Under tail-coverts mostly or wholly white. (Mexico to Oregon.) 



Sayornis nigricans nigricans (p. 597) 

 cc. Under tail-coverts mostly or wholly dusky. 



d. Wing without white bands; white edging to secondaries narrower. 



e. Back more slaty; under tail-coverts partly whitish or pale grayish (Gaute- 



mala.) Sayornis nigricans aquatica (p. 600) 



ee. Back sooty black or dull slate-black; under tail-coverts wholly dusky. 

 (Costa Rica and Northern Panama; Nicaragua?) 



Sayornis nigricans amnicola (p. 601) 

 dd. Wing with two white bands (across tip of middle and greater coverts); white 

 edging of secondaries broader. (Columbia to Venezuela, Peru, and Bo- 

 livia.) Sayornis nigricans cineracea (extralimital)« 



aa. Abdomen cinnamon-Vniff; outermost (tenth) primary longer than sixth; wing 

 much longer than tail. ( Thermomyias .) (Western North America, from Mexico 

 to Alaska.) Sayornis saya (p. 602) 



SAYORNIS PHCEBE (Latham). 

 PHffiBE. 



Adults in spring^ (sexes alike). — Pileum, sides of head, and hind- 

 neck dark sooty brown; back, scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts, plain grayish olive, paler posteriorly; tail 



aTyrannula cineracea Lafresnaye, Rev. Zool., 1848, 8, in text (Bogota, Colombia). — 

 Sayornis cineracea Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 200 (Venezuela; Santa Marta, Colom- 

 bia); Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xiv, 1888, 34. — [Txnioptera] cineracea Gray, Hand-list, i, 

 1869, 343, no. 5194.— \ Sayornis nigricans] var. dnerascens Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, 

 Hist. N. Am. Birds, ii, 1874, 340. — Sayornis nigricans, var. cineracens Baird, Brewer, 

 and Ridgway, Hist. N. Am. Birds, ii, 1874, 340, footnote. — {?)A[ulanax] latirostis Cab- 

 anis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, Sept., 1859, 68, footnote (Bolivia; coll. Berlin Mus.); 

 Cabanis, Journ. fur Orn., 1879, 335 (Bolivia; Tucumau, Argentina). — Sayornis cine- 

 racea latirostris Berlepsch, Journ. fiir Orn., Apr., 1887, 131 (Bolivia; Tucuman, 

 Argentina). — Sayornis ardosiaeus (not Tyrannula ardosiaca Lairesnaye) Cassin, Proc. Ac. 

 Nat. Sci. Phila., 1860, 144 (Falls of Rio Truando, Colombia). — M[yiarchus] nigricans (not 

 Tyrannula nigricans Swainson) Cabanis, in Tschudi's Fauna Peruana, Aves, 1845, 153; 

 Taczanowski, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1874, 539 (Amable Maria and Santo Domiano, 

 Peru). — Sayornis nigricans Berlepsch and Taczanowski, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1883, 

 552 (Chimbo, w. Ecuador); Stone, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1899, 306 (Ibague, 

 centr. Colombia.) 



It is not unlikely that the above references pertain to two or more forms, but I have 

 not the material necessary to enable me to determine the question. Another form has 

 been separated as Sayornis cineracea angustirostris Berlepsch and Stolzman, Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. Lond., 1896 (pub. Aug. 1), 357 (La Merced, centr. Peru; coll. Branicki Mus.). 



& January to April, inclusive, the January birds being very slightly luore yellowish 

 beneath and more olive above, but far less so than specimens taken in December or 

 earlier. After April the plumage becomes duller through abrasion. 



