THE GUANS. 245 



general colour of upper-parts and chest, greyish-olive ; breast 

 and belly white ; under tail-coverls rufous-buff ; tail-feathers 

 tipped with buff. Total length, 25 inches; wing, 9-6; tail, 

 IO-8 ; tarsus, 28 ; middle toe and claw, 2-8. 



Range. — Mexico ; Rio Armeria, Rio Tupila, Real Arriba, 

 Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, and Tehuantepec. 



XIII. THE LESSER GREY HEADED GUAN. ORTALIS VETULA. 



Fenelope vetula,\Nd.^Qrj Isis, 1830, p. 11 12. 



Orta/ida vefula,V\hiu).(ir, Isis, 1832, p. 1227. 



Ortalida jnaccalii, Baird, B. N. Amer. p. 611 (i860). 



Ortalida plumbiceps^ G. R. Gray, List Gallinoe Brit. Mus. p. 11 



(1867). 

 Ortalida ruficrissa,'$i^'dXQX ?i\\^ Salvin, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 538. 

 Ortalis veiula^ Boucard, P. Z. S. 1883, p. 460; Ogilvie-Grant, 



Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 512 (1893). 

 Ortalis vetula maccali^ Coues ; Bendire, N. Am. B. p. 119, 



pi. iii. fig. 16 [Egg] (1892). 

 Ortalis vetula pallidiveutris. Ridgway, Man. N. Am. B. p. 209 



(1887). 

 Adult Male and Female. — Differs from O. poliocephala in being 

 much smaller, and in having the head and neck less grey. 

 Total length, 20 inches ; wing, 8 ; tail, 9*6 ; tarsus, 2*5 ; middle 

 toe and claw, 2-5. 



This species varies somew^hat in colour in the different parts 

 of its wide range, especially on the under-parts of the body, 

 but from the very large series of specimens examined it is clear 

 that all are merely climatic varieties of one form. 



Range. — Southern Texas, extending through Eastern Mexico 

 and Central America to the United States of Colombia. 



Habits. — Assistant-Surgeon James C. Merrill, U.S. Army, in 

 his notes on the " Ornithology of Southern Texas," writes as 

 follows: — "The 'Chachalac,' as the present species is called 

 on the Lower Rio Grande, is one of the most characteristic 

 birds of that region. Rarely seen any distance from woods or 



