Todd-Carriker : Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 369 



328. Phaeomyias murina incomta Cabanis and Heine. 



Phyllomyias semifusca Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, " 1861," 1862, 383, 



pi. 36, fig. 1 (" Santa Marta " ; orig. descr. ; type now in coll. Brit. Mus. ; 



crit.). — Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 214 ("Santa Marta"). — Sclater 



and Salyin, Norn. Avium Neotrop., 1873, 48 (range).- — Salvin and God- 



max. Ibis, 1879, 201 (Atanquez). 

 Elainea semifusca Gray, Hand-List Birds, I, 1869, 355 (Santa Marta, in 



range). 

 Myiopatis semifusca Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XIV, 1888, 123 ("Santa 



Marta " and Atanquez). — Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XII, 1898, 



136 ("Santa Marta"). — Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, 1900, 149 



(Bonda and Cacagualito). — Ridgway, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 50, IV, 



1907, 420, footnote, in text (Santa Marta; crit.). 

 Phcromyias murina incomta von Berlepsch and Hellmayr, Tourn. f. Orn., 



LIII, 1905, 3 (Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta; syn. ; crit.). — vox Berlepsch, 



Nov. Zool., XV, 1908, 135 ("Santa Marta"; crit.). 



Thirty specimens: Bonda, Mamatoco, La Tigrera, Minca, Rio 

 Hacha, Arroya de Arenas, and Valencia. 



A specimen of this dull-colored bird, supposed to have come from 

 Santa Marta, fell into Sclater's hands in 1861, and was described as 

 new under the name Pliyllouiyias semifusca, this specific name remain- 

 ing in current use until 1902, when it was definitely shown by von 

 Berlepsch (Noritatcs Zoologiccc, IX, 1902, 41), to be a synonym of 

 Elainea incomta Cabanis and Heine, described from Cartagena, which 

 was later found to be conspecific with the Platyrhynchus murinus of 

 Spix. At the same time von Berlepsch established a new genus, 

 PJiccomyias, to include this species. 



Sclater's figure, it may be remarked in passing, is a very poor rep- 

 resentation. In fresh plumage the yellow of the under parts is more 

 pronounced, and the brown of the back richer. In juvenal dress the 

 species is much duller and paler, with scarcely a trace of yellow be- 

 low. 



This bird is found mainly in the drier parts of the semi-arid low- 

 lands and lower edge of the foothills of the Tropical Zone. Simons, 

 however, took it at Atanquez, at 2,700 feet, on the south slope of the 

 Sierra Nevada, and the writer has taken it as high up as 2,000 feet at 

 Minca, but it is more common below 1,000 feet. Its favorite haunts 

 are open woodland, the edges of savannas, in low trees and shrubbery, 

 and roadsides. 



