514 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



races into which the species has been divided by some authors have 

 no real standing. Lichtenstein's type came from southern Brazil, 

 from which country no specimens have been seen by the writer, but 

 according to Mr. Hellmayr {Novitatcs Zoologiccc, XIII, 1906, 18) 

 birds from Trinidad are the same. These in their turn are quite in- 

 distinguishable from a series from Ocaiia, Colombia, which are prac- 

 tical topotypes of the supposed form pallida, described by von Ber- 

 lepsch from Bucaramanga. The fact of the matter is, that these 

 pale-colored birds are not localized in their distribution, but are apt 

 to occur anywhere within the range of the species. Thus, No. 72,551, 

 Collection American Museum of Natural History, Masinga Vieja, 

 September 7, 1899, and in perfectly fresh plumage, is so nearly white 

 below that it was identified by Dr. Allen as 6\ luctuosa! It is very 

 nearly matched in this respect, however, by a specimen from San 

 Antonio, Bermudez, Venezuela (No. 73,371, Collection American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History), taken July 27, 1896. An uninterrupted 

 gradation runs from these white-bellied birds up to those which are 

 rich baryta yellow below. The upper parts too, vary even more in 

 color than does the under surface. For example, in the Masinga 

 Vieja skin above referred to the back is deep neutral gray, with a 

 slight olivaceous tinge, and in the San Antonio specimen it is deep 

 grayish olive. From this color it ranges all the way through to a 

 Roman green. In some specimens this deep green color gives way 

 to black, which overspreads the whole of the upper parts, including 

 the wing-coverts, only the tips of the feathers showing green. In 

 others the black is confined to the pileum, and in still others it is re- 

 stricted to the forehead alone. It is probably this latter phase of plu- 

 mage which has been described by von Berlepsch and Stolzmann under 

 the subspecific name inconspicua (Ornis, XIII, 1905, 84), while the 

 richly colored, yellow-bellied birds have been called olivacea by von 

 Berlepsch and Taczanowski (Proceedings Zoological Society of Lon- 

 don, 1883, 550), the respective ranges assigned being eastern Peru and 

 western Ecuador. Although, as before stated, no material from either 

 of these regions has been examined in this connection, it seems very 

 unlikely that the variations shown to prevail throughout Colombia 

 and Ecuador would turn out to be localized farther south, and unless 

 evidence to the contrary should be forthcoming these names will have 

 to follow pallida into synonymy. It is only fair to say, however, that 



