BIRDS OP NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 391 



hexagonal scutella, those on inner side smaller and more longitudinal than 

 those on the outer side; tips of lateral claws extending far beyond base 

 (that of outer toe to or beyond middle) of middle claw, the claws long, 

 slightly curved, and blunt, that of middle toe longer than basal phalanx 

 of that toe. 



Plumage and coloration. — Head with a full, decumbent crest of broad, 

 soft, and blended feathers, these longest on occiput and nape, where they 

 are strongly decurved. Sexes wholly unlike in color, the adult males 

 with head boldly marked with black and white, in harlequinlike pattern, 

 the chin and throat velvety black, bordered below by a white collai 

 across foreneck and ascending to beneath crest, upperparts olive-brownish 

 and grayish spotted and barred with black and with conspicuous streaks 

 of white, buff, or rufous on back and scapulars, sides and flanks with 

 rounded spots of white, cinnamon-buff or cinnamon-rufous spots on a 

 dark gray or slate-colored ground, or chestnut barred with black, the 

 lower abdomen, thighs, anal region, and under tail coverts uniform black: 

 adult females light cinnamon or pinkish cinnamon, the upperparts barred 

 with black, the back and scapulars streaked with buff, head without con- 

 spicuous black or any white markings, and underparts pale cinnamon or 

 pinkish cinnamon with a few blackish markings. 



Range. — Highlands of Guatemala and Mexico and contiguous portion 

 of southwestern United States. (Two "species," which may, however, 

 prove to be extremes of an unusually variable single specific stock.) 



KEY TO THE FORMS OF THE GENUS CYRTONYX 



a. Chin and middle of throat black (males). 



b. Wilh no while transverse band immediately posterior to the black throat 

 (Mount Orizaba, Veracruz) . . . .Crytonyx montezumae merriami (p. 398) 

 bh. With a well-defined white transverse band immediately posterior to the black 

 throat. 

 c. Feathers of flanks with rufous or chestnut markings. 



d. Flank feathers slate-gray marked with round spots of rufous or chestnut 

 (Michoacan to central Oaxaca). 



Cyrtonyx montezumae sallei (p. 399) 



dd. Flank feathers almost wholly rich rufous or chestnut varied transversely 



with black and gray (eastern Oaxaca south in highlands to northwestern 



Nicaragua) Cyrtonyx ocellatus (p. 400) 



c. Feathers of flanks with no rufous or chestnut. 



d. Upper surface of wings definitely grayish (central Texas to Arizona and 

 south to northern Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Sonora). 



Cyrtonyx montezumae mearnsi (p. 392) 



dd. Upper surface of wings with no grayish, but definitely brown (central 



Tamaulipas to Durango and Sinaloa south to Pucbla, Michoacan, and 



Valley of Mexico) Cyrtonyx montezumae montezumae (p. 396) 



aa. Chin and middle of throat white or buffy (females).*' 



Female of C. montcsumae merriami not known. 



