594 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 221 



=Richmondena cardinalis ignea (Baird). See Hellmayr, Catalogue of 

 birds of the Americas 11: 71, 1938. 



12990. Adult male. Cape San Lucas, State of Baja California, Mexico. 

 May 1859. Collected by John Xantus. Original number 192. 



26513 (reentered as 122875 and 208218) . Adult male. Cape San Lucas, 

 State of Baja California, Mexico. May 1859. Collected by John 

 Xantus. Original number 336. 



26536. Adult male. Cape San Lucas, State of Baja California, Mexico. 

 May 1859. Collected by John Xantus. Original number 455. 



Baird had "a large number of males," aU collected by Xantus at the Cape, 

 and the specimens with which his paper dealt had all been "collected from 

 the middle of April to the middle of July, 1859." The only males taken 

 between these dates that can possibly have served him as cotypes are Nos. 

 12989 and 12990 (collected in May 1859 and entered into the register on 

 Oct. 24, 1859) and Nos. 26508, 26510-26520, 26527, 26530, and 26535- 

 26536 (collected from May to July 1859 and entered into the register in 

 January 1863, together with numerous others collected from August to 

 November 1859!). Since Nos. 12989 and 12990 could hardly have been 

 described by Baird as "a large number of males," one is compelled to believe 

 that Xantus's specimens of 1859 came into Washington in small lots that 

 were left unregistered until such time as a sizable collection had accumulated, 

 but since it is no longer always possible to guess which ones had reached the 

 museum prior to Nov. 29, 1859, one must hesitate to admit as cotypes a 

 considerable number of the 26000-series (many of which are no longer in 

 existence) . 



In the original description Baird observed that Xantus's birds "appeared 

 at first sight to be the same with the C. virginianus" Of the five specimens 

 (of all those discussed above) still remaining in Washington, Nos. 12990, 

 26513, and 26536 alone bear, on the obverse face of the oldest label, in 

 Baird's hand, the words "Cardinalis virgin." or "Cardinalis virginianus," 

 with the specific name crossed out and the name "igneus" written above. 



No. 26510 was at some time set aside by Richmond as the lectotype, but 

 this bird has, on the reverse of the oldest label, only the words "Cardinalis 

 igneus" in Baird's hand, so that we may suppose it came to him after he had 

 learned to differentiate between igneus and virginianus, and, therefore, after 

 publication of the name igneus. The label of this skin, incidentally, is of 

 another edition than those used on Nos. 12990, 26513, and 26536, having 

 the printed name "John Xantus de Vesey" instead of the simpler "John 

 Xantus." 



No. 26514 is conceivably one of the cotypes, but it suffered the misfortune 

 of entering Ridgway's private collection, at which time its original label was 

 destroyed and replaced by one of Ridgway's own; it is, consequently, no 

 longer possible to ascertain Baird's first identification. 



No. 26513 at some time entered the private collection of Charles W. Rich- 

 mond (where it became No. 2310) and acquired Richmond's private label 



