Note on Ame7'ican Crows. 87 



VI. — Note on the American Crows of the Subgenus Xanthura. 



By P. L. SCLATER. 



In a communication on this subject read before the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences of Belgium in 1874* by M. Dubois, 

 four '' local varieties " are recognized of Cyanocorax {Xan- 

 thura) incas of authors, which M. Dubois distinguishes as 

 follows from the typical fonn : — 



a. cyanodorsalis : cervice cseruleo-violacea, dorso cseruleo : 



ex Nov. Granad, centr. et merid. 

 /3. cyanocapilla : pileo cyaneo ; vitta pilei inter oculos Can- 

 dida : ex Nov. Granad. bor. et Am. centr. ad Gua- 

 temalam. 

 7. cteruleo-cephala : pileo toto cyaneo, sine vitta alba ; ab- 



domine flavissimo : ex Venezuela. 

 B. luxuosa: praec. sim. sed corp. inf. viridi-luteo : ex Mexico 



et Texas. 

 Having lately had occasion to reexamine the series of spe- 

 cimens of this group in my own collection and in that of 

 Messrs. Salvin and Godman (in all twenty-two in number), 

 I have a few remarks to offer upon the synonymy and dis- 

 tribution of these birds, which have not been quite correctly 

 given either by M. Dubois or by Mr, Sharpe, who has fol- 

 lowed M. Dubois in treating of the genus. 



(1) Mr. Sharpe, in his Catalogue (vol. iii. p. 128 et segg.), 

 reduces M. Dubois's five forms to four species by uniting 

 var. a. cyanodo7'salis of Dubois with the typical incas. But 

 here M. Dubois is certainly right. Mr. Sharpe cannot have 

 seen the Bogota bird, or he would never have reunited it with 

 the typical C. incas. 



(2) M. Dubois and Mr. Sharpe both refer the synonym 

 " Cyanocorax cyanocapillus, Cab. in Tsch. Faun. Per. Aves, 

 p. 233," to the Guatemalan form. But on referring to the 

 original work it will be found that this name is based primarily 

 on several specimens from Xalapa, Mexico, in the Berlin 

 Museum, with which, it is stated, one example from La 

 Guayra {i. e. Venezuela) nearly agrees, except in its yellow 



* " Remarques morpliologiques sur les especes du sous-genre Xanthoura. 

 Par M. Dubois," Bull. Ac. Belg. 2^ s^r. xxxviii. p. 488. 



