884 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



It has not quite reached the orbit in Cat. Kos. 7849 and 2192 of the 0. d. 

 collar is. The superciliary spots have not united across the front in any 

 of the five specimens 0. d. collaris, excepting in Cat. No. 5449. In Cat. 

 No. 2433 it is nearly completed. The interorbital and postorbital bands 

 are complete in the subspecies 0. d. clerica and 0. d. triangula. Finally, 

 the completion of the head ornamentation is seen in the perfect defini- 

 tion of the anterior boundary of the brown band in front of the inter 

 orbital light band. This is seen in three individuals of the 0. d. doliata, 

 in four of the 0. d. collaris, all of the 0. d. clerica, and in three of the 

 five 0. d. triangula. In one of the latter it is simply indistinct; in 

 another it is converted into a median spot by a yellow band, which 

 extends from the interorbital band around the canthus uostralis and 

 end of muzzle. 



This species furnishes them a most instructive illustration of the 

 origin of color characters. 



The geographical distribution of the Osceola doliata extends from lat- 

 itude 48^ through the eastern Austroriparian and southern part of the 

 central district, and throughout Mexico and Central America to Panama. 

 It is wanting from the Pacific and from the Sonoran districts. ]t does 

 .not appear on the west coast of Mexico north of Colima and Michoacan. 



The phylogenetic relations of these subspecies may be sketched as 

 follows : 



r/fM/VGl/l/l 



Clerica 



Semicollaris 



Doliata, 



POLYZONA- 



Syspila 



Occipitalis- 



COCCINEA 



Parallel A 



Annulata 



Which is the ancestral form is uncertain, but as the region inhabited 

 by the 0. d. triangula is much older geologically than that where the 

 0. d. coceinea is found, the former is probably the primitive type. 



The geographical distribution of the subspecies is related to their 

 characters. 0. d. coceinea is exclusively a form of the Gulf border, and 

 0. d. triangula is northern, and is not recorded from south of Washing- 

 ton, District of Columbia. The other found in the same series occupy 

 the intermediate latitudes. The polyzona, occipitalis, and annulatas 

 are Mexican, and the 0. d. parallela is Floridan. The color increases 

 in brilliancy to the south, as the 0. d. triangula is brown spotted and 

 the 0. d. coceinea crimson. The size diminishes in general in the same 

 direction, the species recovering its size in Mexico. 



