88 Note on American Croivs. 



under surface. Subsequently^ in the ' Museum Heiueanum * 

 (i. p. 223), Dr. Cabanis proposed to shift his name onto the 

 Venezuelan bird, i. e. Xanthura cceruleocephala (Dubois), 

 and to leave the Mexican bird as X. luxuosa. But it is in 

 any case erroneous to apply the term cyaneocapilla to the 

 Guatemalan form; and " cyaneocapilla, Cah./' is,in strictness, 

 merely a synonym of " luxuosa, Lesson. ^^ 



(3) M. Dubois and Mr. Sharpe both refer " Xanthoura 

 ffuatimalensis, Bp. Consp. i. 380,'^ to the Guatemalan form, 

 as would be natural enough, judging from the name only. 

 But on looking to Bouaparte^s characters, '' pileo cyaneo; ab- 

 domine flavissimo," it will be seen at once that they by no 

 means fit the Guatemalan bird. The fact is, I believe, that 

 this diagnosis was founded on Venezuelan skins [i. e. on Xan- 

 thura cceruleocephala) which it does apply to exactly; for I 

 have a skin in my collection, received from Verreaux, which, 

 when I bought it, was marked " Xanthura guatimalensis , 

 Bp.,''"' in Bonaparte's own writing*. In this, as in many 

 other cases, Prince Bonaparte probably put down "Mus. 

 Lugd. et Brux.^' from recollection, or from imperfect notes, 

 and added the diagnosis from another specimen. 



But although I have thus destroyed both the names hitherto 

 applied to the Guatemalan bird, I have no intention of pro- 

 posing another for it, as I consider it to be much too close to 

 the Mexican X, luxuosa to require any different specific name. 

 According to my ideas the four separable forms of Xanthura 

 should stand as follows, beginning from the north : — 



1. X. luxuosa (Less.), from Texas, Mexico, Guatemala, 

 and Honduras. {'=X. luxuosa et X cyaneocapilla, Sharpe.) 

 Head blue, with a narrow white postfrontal band ; abdomen 

 yellowish green, in southern specimens more yellow. 



2. X c«rM/eoce/?Aa/a (Dubois), from Venezuela. Head blue, 

 with a very narrow postfrontal band (almost obsolete in some 

 skins t); abdomen bright yellow. 



* In my American Catalogue (p. 144) this skin was wrongly entered 

 as " Cyanocorax incas a, Ecuador," the true C. incas not being then repre- 

 sented in my collection. 



t Cf. Sharpe, I. c. p. l.'U. In a skin from Carip^ (Goering), Mas. S.-G., 

 the white band is of this character. 



