502 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



482. Saltator maximus (Miiller). 



Saltator magnus Salvin and Godman, Ibis, 1880, 121 (Minca). — Sclater, Cat. 



Birds Brit. Mus., XI, 1886, 285 (Minca and Manaure). — Bangs, Proc. Biol. 



Soc. Washington, XII, 1898, 140 ("Santa Marta " ; crit.), 178 (San Miguel 



and Palomina ; crit.)- — Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, 1900, 166 



(Onaca, Cacagualito, and Minca). 

 Saltator maximus von Berlepsch, Verh. V. Int. Orn.-Kong., 1911, 1113 



(" Santa Marta," in range). 



Additional records : Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Mamarongo, La 

 Concepcion (Brown); Tucurinca (Carriker). 



Twenty-five specimens : Cacagualito, Don Amo, Minca, Agua Dulce. 

 Fundacion, Don Diego, Pueblo Viejo, and Chirua. 



Mr. Bangs was inclined to consider the Santa Marta bird distinct 

 from that of Cayenne, but the present series does not disclose any 

 peculiarities worthy of notice as compared with specimens from other 

 parts of South America. In juvenal dress, illustrated by Nos. 9.322 

 (August 6) and 42,236 (June 17), the general color of the under parts 

 is much duller, with obsolete streaks, the ochraceous of the throat is 

 absent, and the bill is pale. 



We are unable to follow Messrs. Mathews and Iredale (Austral 

 Avian Record, III, 191 5, 40) in changing the name of this species 

 to Saltator cayanus, since Buffon's plate 205 is, in our judgment, a 

 much better representation of the bird than is plate 616. 



This is strictly a bird of the Tropical Zone, ranging over the humid 

 part of the lowlands and the foothills up to about 3,000 feet. Mr. 

 Brown claims to have collected it at San Miguel, but none were seen 

 so high as that by the writer. It was most abundant at Pueblo Viejo 

 and Fundacion, frequenting the more open woodland, such as isolated 

 groves and the fringe of trees along streams. It is solitary in its 

 habits, and feeds almost entirely upon fruits. A nest sent in by Mr. 

 Smith is marked as having been collected at Don Amo, August 6. It 

 is built in the fork of an oblique branch of a large-leafed tree (Banis- 

 teria lauri folia) , and is remarkable for the coarseness of the twigs 

 and leaves which enter into its composition, even the lining layer being 

 of comparatively coarse, wiry weed-stalks. The (two) eggs are like 

 those of S. oliz'asccns plumb eus, pale blue, with a ring of black spots 

 and scrawls around the larger end. 



