Todd-Carriker : Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 479 



been deterred from taking a similar course, in the case of the Chirua 

 birds 'above listed, only by inability to find characters sufficient to 

 distinguish them from true holosericeus, but since Dr. Chapman has 

 succeeded in diagnosing the forms in question, the way was left open 

 to describe tbe Central American race. But the birds from the 

 Santa Marta region, as represented by the above specimens, certainly 

 do not belong to flavirostris, their proportions being altogether dif- 

 ferent, as the following measurements will indicate. 



Depth 

 No. Sex. Locality. Wing. Tail. Bill. of Bill. 



44979 $ Heights of Chirua, Colombia 89 100 26 13 



44980 <§ Heights of Chirua, Colombia 95 105 25 13 



45043 c? Heights of Chirua, Colombia 95 102 28 13 



45044 $ Heights of Chirua, Colombia 90 99 24.5 11.5 



45064 J 1 Heights of Chirua, Colombia 96 106 27 13 



Comparison of these figures with those given by Dr. Chapman for 

 his specimens from western Colombia and Ecuador shows that there 

 is a considerable discrepancy, scarcely to be accounted for by dif- 

 ferent degrees of wear. It would seem as if the color of the bill, 

 upon which Dr. Chapman lays so much stress, is fairly constant, at 

 least in adult birds. In the above specimens it is marked as " olive 

 yellow " or " pale olive yellow," while in three skins from as many 

 different localities in the State of Bolivar it is given as " pale pea 

 green" or "yellowish pea green" — precisely as in the majority of 

 the Costa Rican skins. The question should be studied with a much 

 larger series of specimens, and until this can be done it seems best 

 not to refer the specimens from the present region to any one of the 

 described forms of the species. 



Five specimens of this bird were taken on the Heights of Chirua 

 at from 5,000 to 6,000 feet. They were all shot in the thick second 

 growth and dense patches of " wild platinos " in the old clearings. 

 None were seen at any other point. The species is known to belong 

 to the Tropical Zone, but is one of those which ranges upward into 

 the Subtropical under some conditions, as it does here. 



459. Cacicus cela (Linnaeus). 



Cassicus persicus Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XII, 1898, 138 (" Santa 



Marta ")• — Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Hist., XIII, 1900, 163 (Cacagualito). 

 Cacicus cela Chapman, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXXVI, 1917, 627, 628 



(Cacagualito; range). 

 32 



