CHE:RRIE: ornithology of the ORINOCO REGION. I39 



spots and blotches of various shades of brown, from rufous to chest- 

 nut ; in one, nearly uniformly distributed, in the other thickest about 

 the larger end. They are ovate in form and measure 28.25x20; 

 28.75x19; 26.5x19 and 27.75x20 mm. respectively. The eggs of 

 F. albiventer cannot be distinguished from those of its congener 

 P. gymnophthalmus. 



Planesticus fumigatus (Lichtenstein). 



Turdiis fumigatus Licht., Verz. Doubl. 1823. p. 2,^; Berlepsch & Hartert 



P- .3- 



The marked variation in color presented by a series of these 

 thrushes from various localities throughout northern South America 

 has been already commented on by ornithologists. The series before 

 the writer is entirely too small and too meagre in localities repre- 

 sented, to give any satisfactory idea of the geographical distribution 

 of the three or four races into which it seems the species might be 

 separable. Indeed, the distribution indicated by the material at hand 

 is most perplexing. 



The writer has met with this thrush on the upper Orinoco, above 

 the falls of Atures and those of Maipures, and in Trinidad. At 

 the present time he has for comparison, specimens from Trinidad, 

 British Guiana, El Pilar on the north coast of Venezuela, Nericagua 

 on the upper Orinoco, Cayenne, and three points in Brazil, viz., Santarem, 

 Diamantina and Maranhao. 



From the upper Orinoco region (Nericagua) only one bird is 

 available for comparison. It is a female, taken April 23rd, and agrees 

 almost exactly in color with an example from Santarem, Brazil (with- 

 out sex or other data), but is decidedly smaller, the wing measuring 

 only 105 mm. and the tail 95, while in the Brazilian specimen the wing 

 measures ii8 mm. and the tail no mm. 



The specimens from Trinidad are uniformly much lighter in 

 ^color than those from the other localities in the series before me, 

 being a raw umber, with a pronounced olive wash and with a narrow 

 russet edging to the outer edges of the quills, greater, and middle 

 wing coverts. The Nericagua and Santarem birds are dark mummy 

 brown above with a wash of vandyke, while the tips and outer edges 

 of greater and middle coverts are cinnamon-rufous in the Nericagua 

 example (a characteristic which may be due to immaturity). The 



