NOTES' ON GUATEMALAN BIRDS' — WETM'OiRE 539 



Family CUCULIDAE 



COCCYZUS ERYTHROPTHALMUS (Wilson) : Black-billed Cuckoo 



Cuculns erythroptlialmus Wilson, American ornithology, vol. 4, 1811, p. 1, pi. 

 28, fig. 2 (near Philadelphia, Pa.). 



A female was shot at 7,800 feet on the slopes of Volcan de Agua 

 above Santa Maria de Jesus on October 31. The bird was very fat. 



PIAYA CAYANA THERMOPHILA Sclater 



Piaya thermopJtila Sclatkr, Proc. Zocl. See. London, 1859 (Feb. 1S60), p. 368 

 (Jalapa, Veracruz). 



On November 29 at Las Lajas at 3,200 feet elevation below Alote- 

 nango two worked quietly through shade trees over coffee. A female 

 taken had the back feathers very loose. On the following day I 

 Matched one for some time in this same coffee plantation. It alighted 

 to rest quietly for a minute or two, then hopped and ran quickly 

 across two or three branches, to stop and move the long tail up 

 and down while it peered about in typical cuckoo fashion. After 

 another run it reached over to take something from a clump of mistle- 

 toe. At times it was wholly quiet, but ordinarily the tail was in 

 motion. 



The specimen taken has the dark coloration typical of thertnophila 

 and shows no indication of the lighter shade of P. c. stirtoni van Ros- 

 sem from El Salvador.*' After examination of a large series of fher- 

 'niophila I have not been able to segregate the form described by 

 Griscom from Panama as Piaya cayana incinctaJ The width of the 

 subterminal black tail band on the dorsal surface of the rectrices 

 varies considerably throughout the entire range of thermo'phila, being 

 occasionally even absent on the middle pair of feathers. There is 

 similar variation in the presence or absence of a rufescent mixture 

 on the ventral surface of the tail. 



GEOCOCCYX VELOX AFFINIS Hartlaub 



Oeococcyx affinis Hartlattb, Rev. Zool., vol. 7, 1844, p. 215 (Guatemala). 

 One was seen near Alotenango, November 5. 



CROTOPHAGA SULCIROSTRIS SULCIROSTRIS Swainson 



Crotophaga sulcirostris Swainson, Phil. Mag., new ser., vol. 1, June 1827, p. 440 

 (Tableland, Tema.sca.ltepec, Mexico). 



At Las Lajas below Alotenango at an elevation of 3,500 feet I shot 

 one of these birds from the top of a tall tree in a heavily wooded 



"Piaya cayana stirtoni van Rossem, Trans. San Diego Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 6, Sept. 30, 

 1930, p. 209 (Mount Cacaguatique, Dept. San Miguel, El Salvador). 



''Piaya cayana incincta Griscom, Bull. Mns. Comp. Zool., vol. 72, Jan. 1932, p. 324 

 (Perm6, Caribbean slope of Darien, eastern Panama). 

 270405 — 11 3 



