﻿VENEZUELAN ORNITHOLOGY — FRIEDMANN AND SMITH 505 



SPECIMEN COLLECTED 



1 cf , Cantaura, December 15, 1947; gonads small; iris brown, feet black, bill 

 very dark brown; bird thin; an adult in worn plumage. 



Several individuals were seen in December in the deciduous seasonal 

 woods-edge habitat, usually together with Tyrannus melancholicus 

 chloronotus. 



EMPIDONOMUS VARIUS RUFINUS (Spix) 



Muscicapa rufina Spix, Avium species novae . . . Brasiliam . . ., vol. 2, 1825, 

 p. 22, pi. 31, figs. 1, 2 ("in provincia fl. Amazonum"). 



SPECIMEN COLLECTED 



1 cf, Cantaura, January 19, 1948; gonads small; iris dark, bill dark brown 

 with base of mandible pale yellow-brown, feet black; feathering very worn. 



The specimen has the small bill and generally paler coloration of 

 the subspecies rufinus. Zimmer (Amer. Mus. Nov., No. 962, 1937, 

 pp. 22-25) has shown that rufinus occurs farther to the west than 

 Hellmayr's account (Catalogue of the birds of the Americas, pt. 5, 

 1927, pp. 113-114) indicates. The present example bears him out 

 in this. 



This flycatcher was taken in the deciduous seasonal woods-edge 

 habitat. It was also recorded in the woods at Caicara in April 

 and July. 



MYIODYNASTES MACULATUS MACULATUS (P. L. S. Muller) 



Muscicapa rnaculata P. L. S. Muller, Natursystem, Suppl., 1776, p. 169 

 (Cayenne) . 



SPECIMEN COLLECTED 



1 cf , Cantaura, April 17, 1945; gonads enlarged. 



Our specimen is somewhat intermediate between maculatus and 

 tobagensis Zimmer but is nearer the former, with which it is here 

 identified. It probably comes from the northern limit of the range 

 of this race, as tobagensis (Amer, Mus. Nov., No. 963, 1937, p. 7) 

 is said to inhabit northern Venezuela west to northern Anzofitegui, 

 southeastward across the Orinoco Delta into British Guiana. Two 

 specimens from Tobago are so much darker above than our present 

 example that they cannot be looked upon as the same race; the 

 character of the supposedly less yellowish, more whitish underparts 

 of tobagensis does not seem to hold very well in the material studied. 



This bird was fairly common throughout the year in the wet woods 

 around Caicara; it was present but rather rare in the dry woods around 

 Cantaura, except in April, May, and June, when a definite movement 

 was taking place. The call note was a series of spaced chee-chee-chee's, 

 fairly loud, but not very flycatcherlike. A marked temporary in- 

 crease in the numbers of this bird around Cantaura was noted during 

 the latter half of April, both in 1945 and 1946. 



