Todd-Carriker : Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 505 



overlooked or ignored by authors generally until Dr. Stone called at- 

 tention to it in 1899, remarking that Mr. Ridgway considered it to 

 stand for a race distinct from the typical C. phccniceus of Venezuela. 

 Comparison of the present fine series with an equally good one from 

 Venezuela, however, fails to disclose the slightest difference, and as 

 we cannot regard C. robinsoni Richmond as a valid race the name will 

 stand as above. 



This is another representative of the Arid Tropical Zone of west- 

 central Venezuela, entering the Santa Marta region from the northeast. 

 It is a common bird about Rio Hacha, living in the thickets of thorny 

 scrub and cacti, preferring the former. It is rather shy, and cannot 

 be approached very closely. It ranges in this region as far at least as 

 Fonseca, near the headwaters of the Rio Rancheria. 



486. Pheucticus laubmanni Hellmayr and von Seilern. 



Three specimens : San Miguel. 



The present record considerably extends the recognized range of this 

 recently described bird, heretofore thought to be confined to northern 

 Venezuela. The above specimens agree in all respects with a series 

 from that country, some of which, collected as far back as 191 1, had 

 been erroneously referred to P. chrysogaster. With a series from 

 Ecuador, doubtless representing this latter form correctly, now avail- 

 able for comparison through the courtesy of the U. S. National Mu- 

 seum, it is evident that the Venezuelan and Colombian birds belong 

 to a form which seems to be specifically distinct. The black band on 

 the upper back, which is practically " solid " in P. chrysogaster, or at 

 most slightly interrupted on the median line, is broadly streaked with 

 golden yellow in P. laubmanni, showing an approach to the other 

 form in only one specimen, a bird in high plumage from San Miguel 

 (No. 45,178), in which the scapulars are nearly uniformly black. The 

 white on the tail also is decidedly more restricted in the new form, 

 and (what is of much more significance) the sexes are not certainly 

 distinguishable in color, although the females seem to average a little 

 duller. In both P. chrysogaster and its near ally, P. chrysopeplus, 

 the sexes are decidedly unlike. Immature birds, of which there is one 

 in the above series, may readily be told by their generally duller colors, 

 with brown wings and tail. 



This bird was not seen except at San Miguel, along a small stream 



