664 BULLETIN 50;, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



l)y much more than length of tarsus; seventh, eighth, and ninth pri- 

 maries longest and about equal, the tenth (outermost) slightly shorter 

 than fifth. Tail- less than three-fourths as long as wing, slightly 

 emarginate, the rectrices firm, of uniform width, with broadly rounded 

 tip. Tarsus more than one-sixth as long as wing, its scutellation 

 typically exaspidean, without separate series of scutella on upper 

 ])osterior portion of outer side of tarsus; middle toe, with claw, much 

 longer than tarsus, its basal phalanx united to outer toe for greater 

 part of its length, to inner toe for less than half; outer toe, without 

 claw, reaching to about or a little beyond middle of subterminal pha- 

 lanx of middle toe, the inner toe decidedly shorter; hallux a little 

 shorter than inner toe, not conspicuously stouter, its claw shorter 

 than the digit; all the claws rather strongly curved, sharp. 



Coloration. — Above plain olive, the crown dusk}^, surrounded by a 

 conspicuous ring of white and (in adults) with a concealed yellow or 

 rufous patch; a broad band of black on side of head; under parts 

 clear gamboge or lemon yellow, the throat white. 



Nidiiication. — Nest and eggs similar to those of Pitangus. 



Range. — Southern Mexico to Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela. (Mono- 

 typic.'^) 



KEY TO THE SUBSPECIES OF MEGARYNCHt'S PITANGUA.'> 



a. Pileum blackish or dark sooty; back, etc., decidedly greenish olive, sometimes 

 almost olive-green. 

 b. Smaller (wing averaging 114. G in male, 111.9 in female); color of back, etc., duller 

 olive. (Colombia to Cayenne, southern Brazil, Argentina, etc.) 



Megarynchus pitangua pitangua (extralimital) c 



« I can not agree with Messrs. Salvador! and Festa (see Boll. Mus. ZooL, etc., Torino, 

 XV, no. 362, 1899, 10) in their reference of Scaphorhynchus chrysocephalus Tschudi to 

 this genus. If not referable to Myiodynastes (see p. 655), it should be placed in a sepa- 

 rate genus, Hypermitres Cabanis, of which it is the type. 



b Owing to the insufficient number of South American examples available for com- 

 parison at the present time, I am unable to do more than roughly separate the South 

 American birds of this species as a whole from those found in Central America and 

 Mexico. There seem to be at least two, and probably three, well-characterized geo- 

 graphic forms in South America, namely: (1) The true M. pitangua of eastern Brazil, 

 etc. ; (2) M. pitangua chrysogaster, of western Ecuador, of which, however, I have not 

 been able to examine a specimen; and (3) a very dark-colored form found in Paraguay, 

 of which there is a single example in the U. S. National Museum. 



c [Lanius] pitangva Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, i, 1766, 136 (Brazil; based on Musci- 

 capa tyrannus brasiliensis Brisson, Orn., ii, 401, pi. 36, fig. 5, etc.). — [Lanius] pitangua 

 Gmelin, Syst. Nat., i, 1788, 303. — Tyrannus pitanguaSwamson, Quart. Journ. Sci., xx, 

 Jan., 1826, 270.—PlatrjrhyncMi.spitanguaTeiaminck,Tah\Met\i., 1820, 23.—M[usdcapa] 

 pitangua Lichtenstein, Verz. Doubl., 1823, 54. — Scaphorhynchus pitangua Strickland, 

 Ann. and Mag. N. H., vii, 1841, 28. — Megarynchus pitangua Thunberg, Dissert, p. 

 Schaerstr., 1824, no. 1. — Megarhynchus pitangua Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xiv, 

 1888, 189, itart.— Tyrannus pitanga Descourtilz, Orn. Bres., 1856, pi. 22, fig. (2).— 

 Megarhynchus pitanguus Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1870, 571 (crit.). — Mega- 

 rhynchus pitangus Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. N. H., xxi, 1905, 283 (descr. nest and eggs). — 



