NOTES ON THE GENUS SITTASOMUS OF SWAINSON. 



BY 



Robert Ridgway, 



Curator of the Department of Birds. 



In his recently published catalogue of the Trachoophona^,* pages 

 118-121, Dr. P. L. Sclater recognizes three species of iSittasomuSj as 

 follows: 



1. S. erithacus (Licht.), "SE. Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, ami N. 

 Argentina." (Synonyms, Dendrocolaptes sylviellus Teuim., and Sitta- 

 somus temminckii Less.) 



2. S.oUvacens Max., "S. Mexico, Central America, and South America 

 down to Brazil." (Synonyms, Sitfanomus griseus Jard., S. amazoniis 

 Lafr,, S. sylvioidcs Lafr., and 8. pectinicaudus Cab. and Eeine. 



3. S. stictohrmus Pelz., Amazonia. 



Of these three species the U. S. National Museum possesses speci- 

 mens of all but the last, besides numerous examples which can not be 

 referred to either 8. erithacus or S, olivaceus. A considerable number 

 of additional specimens have been borrowed from the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History, New York City, and the Boston Society of 

 Natural History, including the types of S. olivaceus Max., and S. ama- 

 zonus Lafr., so that altogether a very fair series of the different forms 

 has been brought together for comparison. The careful examination 

 of this material immediately convinced me that the actual number of 

 recognizable forms is at least double that recognized by Dr. Sclater; 

 indeed, it is a matter of great surprise to me that forms so strongly 

 characterized as S. griseus Jard., 8. sylvioidcs Lafr., and an unnamed 

 one from western Ecuador could ever have been referred to the species 

 into which Dr. Sclater has merged tlioin. Examination of the type 

 specimen also shows that ^S. olivaceus Max., instead of being one of the 

 forms which the distinguished authority cited has "lumped" under 

 that name, is really referable to 8. erithacus ( Licht.), t and that the so- 



* Cafalo^iiio I of the | Passeriformes, | or [ Perching Rinln, | in the | collection j ot 



the I BritiMh Mnsonni. | i Tracheophonje, | or the Families | Dendroeoiaptida", 



Formicariida), | Couopophagida', and Ptcroptochida'. | By | Philip Lutley Sclater. | 

 London: | Printed by order of the Trn.stees, | 18'J0. (Constitnting Volume xv of 

 the " Catalogne of the Birds in the British Mnaeuni.") 



t Mr. J. A. Allen has already made this identification (see Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., vol. II, No. 3, 1889, p. 247), but I was not aware of it until after the above was 

 written. 



507 

 ProceediD(;3 of the National Mnsenm, Vol. XIV— No. 877. 



