Todd-Carriker : Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 221 



158. Systellura 31 ruficervix (Sclater). 



Steuofisis ruficervix Hartert, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XVI, 1892, 584 (Sierra 

 Nevada de Santa Marta). 



Ten specimens: San Miguel, Macotama, Paramo de Chiruqua, and 

 San Lorenzo. 



Agreeing with specimens from Venezuela and the interior of Co- 

 lombia. 



This species appears to be more characteristic of the Temperate 

 Zone, although extending down to the upper Subtropical. A pair were 

 secured on the San Lorenzo at 8,000 feet, where they were breeding. 

 The eggs were laid out on an open ridge on the bare ground, under 

 the shelter of a small bush. In the Sierra Nevada it was fairly com- 

 mon from San Miguel on up the valley to an altitude of 12,000 feet, 

 and seven specimens were secured. A pair were breeding near our 

 camp at San Miguel, the eggs being laid on top of a bare rock with 

 high grass all around. 



159. Thermochalcis cayennensis albicauda (Lawrence). 

 Nine specimens : Punto Caiman, Don Diego, and Dibulla. 

 Unfortunately only one male is included, and this looks as if it 



were not fully mature. In its darker coloration above and buffy suf- 

 fusion below as compared with an adult male of T. c. insularis it 

 answers to Mr. Ridgway's diagnosis of albicauda. The outer rectrices 

 are conspicuously banded with black, but in view of the variation 

 shown in this respect by a series of true cayennensis from French 

 Guiana we are not inclined to attach much if any importance to this 

 character. Females differ conspicuously from a series of the same 

 sex of the typical form in being more buffy below, with the dark barr- 

 ing and mottling much less distinct; they are also paler above, with 

 the black spots and streaks smaller. They agree well with a female 

 albicauda from Costa Rica, but have the black streaks on the pileum 

 less " solid." They are indistinguishable from female examples of 

 insularis, however. The preponderance of evidence thus favors the 

 reference of the Santa Marta birds of this genus to albicauda, to which 

 form Mr. Ridgway doubtfully refers a specimen from Barranquilla, 

 Colombia. 



31 The combination " Thermochalcis ruficervix " (cf. Chapman, Bulletin 

 American Museum of Natural History, XXXVI, 1917, 275) is of course inad- 

 missible, Systellura having priority. 



