Todd-Carriker: Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 211 



attempt to. work out the possible geographic variants of this species in 

 the South American continent that we prefer to leave the matter in 

 abeyance. 



This is not a common bird anywhere, and moreover is most difficult 

 to secure. It has been heard in nearly all the localities visited in the 

 lowlands where more open conditions exist. It prefers the thick 

 second-growth, abandoned pasture-lands, etc. It has a very character- 

 istic whistling call of two musical notes, but of such ventriloquistic 

 properties that it is next to impossible to locate the bird by following it 

 up. 



142. Piaya columbiana (Cabanis). 



Piaya cayana (not Cuculus cayanus Linnaeus) Salyin and Godmax. Ibis, 1879, 



206 (Valle de Upar) ; 1880, 175 (Minca). — Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., 



XIX, 1891, 373 ("Santa Marta," Minca, and Valle de Upar). 

 Piaya cayana mehleri (not of Bonaparte) Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 



XII, 1898, 133 ("Santa Marta"). — Bangs, Proc. New England Zool. Club, 



I, 1899, 76 (San Sebastian).— Allen. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, 



1900, 134 (Bonda). 

 Piaya cayana columbiana Stone, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, i9°8, 



498 (" Santa Marta " and Bonda). — Chapman, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 



XXXVI, 1917, 319 (Santa Marta [region] ; crit.). 

 Piaya columbiana Ridgway, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 50, VII, 1916, 47 



(diag. ; Bangs' reference). 



Additional records: La Conception, San Francisco (Brown). 



Twenty-one specimens : Bonda, Cincinnati, Fundacion, La Tigrera, 

 Mamatoco, Las Vegas, Minca, and Don Diego. 



We follow Mr. Ridgway in keeping this form specifically distinct 

 from P. cayana, although intergradation between the two has been as- 

 sumed or asserted to exist by some other authorities. Certain it is 

 that there is a great deal of variation shown in the amount of subter- 

 minal black on the rectrices, this color being highly developed in some 

 specimens, covering practically the whole of the exposed portions of 

 the outer feathers in some individuals, while in others it is not as 

 wide as the black tips. The general coloration, too, varies with the 

 season, July and August birds, for example, being very pale when 

 compared with those taken in January, and this fact must naturally be 

 borne in mind in making comparisons. No. 42,989 (Fundacion, Au- 

 gust 17) is peculiar in having the central rectrices uniform chestnut, 

 without any sign of a differently colored tip. 



