FAMILY TYRANNIDAE 385 



The resident birds are of a single, widely distributed subspecies 

 that ranges from southern Mexico south through Central America 

 to Colombia, northern \"enezuela. Trinidad, and Curagao. The 

 nominate race, which breeds from southern Colombia and southern 

 Venezuela southward, is known in Panama at present from a single 

 locality in southeastern Darien. 



TYRANNUS MELANCHOLICUS MELANCHOLICUS Vieillot 



Tyrannus uiclancholicns Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., nouv. ed., vol. 35, 

 December 1819, p. 84. (Paraguay.) 



Characters. — Darker gray on the head and hindneck ; back dark 

 gray with little or no greenish cast ; chin and throat grayish white ; 

 lower foreneck, upper breast, and adjacent sides dark gray with 

 little or no wash of yellowish green ; under surface darker, deeper 

 yellow. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from western Colombia, extreme 

 southern Venezuela, and Paraguay), wing 112.4-117.2 (115.0), tail 

 90.6-99.2 (93.2), culmen from base 23.2-27.1 (24.9), tarsus 18.5- 

 19.5 (19.1) mm. 



Females (10 from western and southeastern Colombia, extreme 

 southern Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, and Uruguay), wing 106.5- 

 116.4 (110.9), tail 87.0-90.7 (88.7), culmen from base 22.2-25.8 

 (24.1), tarsus 18.1-18.8 (18.3) mm. 



Status uncertain. Birds of the Pacific coast in extreme eastern 

 Darien appear to be intermediate with chloronotus, but in part show 

 the darker coloration of the nominate form. 



In the coastal area at Jaque, Darien, near the mouth of the Rio 

 Jaque, on March 24, 1946, I collected a mated pair of this species in 

 which the male agrees fully with typical melancholicus. They were in 

 breeding condition, and were preparing to nest. The female is dark 

 on the head, hindneck, and back but on the ventral surface resembles 

 chloronotus. except that the yellow is darker, as in melancholicus. 

 A third female, collected above Jaque at El Brazo, on the Rio Jaque, 

 about 5 kilometers above its mouth, agrees also with melancholicus. 

 On the basis of these three specimens the population here appears 

 intermediate, but nearer melancholicus. 



In further work in this area in 1947 I noted occasional kingbirds 

 along the Rio Jaque from its mouth inland to the point where it is 

 joined by the Rio Imamado, but had no opportunity to secure other 

 specimens. 



