546 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



through isolation of a peculiar form, such as this, in the interior 

 region. 



Chaemepelia passerina nana subsp. nov. 



Type, No. 36,138, Collection Carnegie Museum, adult male; 

 Jimenez, Rio Dagua, western Colombia, July 9, 1907; Mervyn G. 

 Palmer. 



Subspecific characters. — Male: upper parts of about the same shade 

 as in C. p. pallescens, but crown and nape grayish brown like the 

 back, more or less suffused with vinaceous, seldom with any trace of 

 plumbeous, and the squamation obsolescent; vinaceous of under parts 

 and wing-coverts deeper, and size much less. Female (one specimen) 

 decidedly darker and smaller than the same sex of C. p. pallescens, 

 with no plumbeous on the crown and nape, and the squamation of 

 these parts indistinct. 



Measurements. — Male (seven specimens): wing, 77-80 (average, 

 78.4); tail, 52-60 (56.6); exposed culmen, 10. 5-1 1.5 (11); tarsus, 

 15. 5-17 (16). Female (one specimen): wing, 74; tail, 55; exposed 

 culmen, 11; tarsus, 16. 



Range. — Western Colombia, in the valleys of the upper Rio Cauca 

 and the Rio Dagua. 



Remarks. — In its small size this form resembles C. p. parvula, but 

 is undoubtedly distinct, being paler and less distinctly squamate, 

 both above and beneath. The vinaceous coloring is very rich, and 

 invades the upper parts to a greater or less extent, while the plumbeous 

 area of the crown and nape is obsolete or reduced to a mere trace. 

 One specimen, indeed, has the forehead vinaceous cinnamon, passing 

 into brown posteriorly. 



Curiously enough, as already noted, no form of C. passerina seems 

 to have been positively recorded from Panama, nor are there any 

 records from the valley of the Atrato. Until specimens from this 

 latter section in particular are available it is idle to speculate on the 

 affinities of the two small Colombian forms. The situation in Co- 

 lombia is certainly a very complicated one so far as C. passerina is 

 concerned, and should it turn out that the hiatus in its range to the 

 northwestward is real and not apparent there would remain much 

 more to be explained. 



The present form is based on eight specimens, all from a com- 

 paratively restricted area in western Colombia, near the head of the 



