PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 109 



the black bars (averaging about balf as wide); secondaries narrowly 

 barred with white ; primaries black, margined terminally with white, 

 and with a few irregular spots of the same near base of outer webs ; 

 npper tail-coverts and rump immaculate pure white. Tail deep black, 

 the under surface hoary drab, and the lateral pair of feathers sometimes 

 showing indications of narrow white bars near the end. Adult 9 : 

 Similar, but the whole crown light drab-gray, becoming lighter ante- 

 riorly (nearly white on the forehead). Bill slate-black; feet dusky (oli- 

 vaceous in life?). Wing, 4.95-5.40; tail, 3.40-3.80; culmen, 1.00-1.30; 

 tarsus, .90-.95. 



This form is evidently most closely related to C. santacruzi^ but it may 

 be immediately distinguished, in its typical condition, by the entire ab- 

 sence of even the slightest trace of orange in the red of the nape, while the 

 frontlet and abdomen are a pure deep scarlet, instead of orange-yellow. 

 In other respects, however, there is a verj^ close correspondence in all 

 the colors and markings, even to a minute degree, almost the only dif- 

 ference consisting in the white bars of the dorsal surface being still 

 narrower. In the red abdomen, and jjure red pileum, nape, and front- 

 let, there is a closer resemblance to C. caroUnus than to C. santacruzi, but 

 the red of all the parts named is more intense, while the forehead is 

 invariably crossed by a sharply-defined band of nearly pure white. In 

 other respects the two are verj^ different, C. caroUnus having the white 

 bars on the back, etc., about three times as wide, the upper tail-coverts 

 varied with black, the middle tail-feathers largely varied with white, 

 etc. Comparing the females of the two species, the present one has the 

 crown an altogether lighter gray, and the red of the nape and frontlet 

 much more intense — the latter also more abruptly defined. 



It is not to be supposed, however, that the characters of this form, as 

 given above, are absolutely constant, for this is not the case ; on the con- 

 trary, specimens now before me plainly indicate, if i\xey do not actually 

 prove, intergradation with (7. smitacruzi. Specimens from northern Yu- 

 catan are, so far as I have seen, purely typical ; but an adult male in Mr. 

 Lawrence's collection, -saM to be from Guatemala, has the red of the belly 

 decidedly lighter and more liame-coloredthan in Yucatan exami)les, while 

 an adult female from Orizaba agrees with it in this respect. The former, 

 moreover, has the inner webs of the middle pair of rectrices deeply 

 notched with white, while the latter has a considerable quantity of 

 white blotching on the inner webs of the same feathers, the outer webs 

 of which are marked, on their basal half, with a conspicuous longitu- 

 dinal stripe of white, mostly concealed, however, by the upper coverts. 

 In this example, the w'hite bars above are broader (about as in average 

 specimens of santacnizi), while the dark bars of the flanks and crissum, 

 as well as the white ones of the terminal portion of lateral rectrices, are 

 much broader than usual. 



The type of Piciis duMus, Cabot, which has been kindly loaned me by 

 its describer, is a fully adult male agreeing in all respects with other 

 specimens from northern Yucatan. 



