568 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM VOL. 97 
This subspecies is not too well differentiated from the nominate 
form but is recognizable, 
ARREMON TACITURNUS TACITURNUS (Hermann): Pecterol Sparrow 
Tanagra taciturna HerMann, Tabula affinitatum animalium . . . 1783, p. 214 
(note) (based on ‘‘L’Oiseau Silentieux”’ Buffon, Histoire naturelle des oiseaux, 
vol. 4, p. 304, and Daubenton, Planches enluminées . . ., pl. 742: Cayenne 
(cf. Stresemann, Nov. Zool., vel. 27, 1920, p. 328)). 
SPECIMENS COLLECTED 
1 ad. unsexed, 1 ad. 9, Rio Cauabury, Amazonas, Brazil, November 5, 1930. 
4 ad. o&, 5 ad. 9, 1 im. unsexed, Séio Gabriel, Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil. 
December 31, 1930—January 17, 1931. 
1 ad. 2, Raudal Corocoro, Brazo Casiquiare, Venezuela, February 9, 1981. 
lad. o&, Brazo Casiquiare, below mouth of Rfo Pacila, Venezuela, February 22, 
1931. 
1 ad. @, Brazo Casiquiare, below Cafio Caripo, Venezuela, February 22, 1931. 
7 ad. &, 2 ad. 9, 1 im. o@, Cerro Yapacana, Upper Orinoco, Venezuela, 
March 19—April 7, 1931. 
This fine series has been compared with 20 more specimens from 
northeastern Brazil, French Guiana, and British Guiana, and no con- 
stant geographic differences were noted. Two adult males from 
Ceara agree with a statement by Hellmayr (Publ. Field Mus. Nat. 
Hist., Zool. Ser., vol. 12, No. 18, 1929, p. 289) that east Brazilian 
birds have the backs of a brighter, more yellowish hue. However, 
birds from Bahia to the south of them and from the Guianas and the 
Lower Amazon to the north, are indistinguishable from one another 
or from Upper Amazonian birds. Ina later work Hellmayr (Catalogue 
of the birds of the Americas, pt. 12, 1938, p. 426, footnote) makes no 
mention of the back color but writes that he has ‘‘yet to see from 
Guiana or Amazonia specimens with such an extensive grayish suffu- 
sion across chest and along flanks as is the case in some individuals 
from Bahia’ and that he has been unable to perceive any other 
differences. I find this character to be too variable to be relied on as 
a possible racial trait. The unsexed adult (probably a male) from 
Rio Cauabury is about as heavily grayish on the chest, sides, and 
flanks as the grayest of a series of Bahia birds. 
A young male collected at Cerro Yapacana, on April 9, shows the 
beginnings of adult coloration in the blackish brown auriculars and 
subocular stripe. There is an indication of the white supraocular 
stripe and a paling of the center of the crown and nape indicating 
the stripe to come. The throat is buffy white, the breast dark 
grayish buffy, this color extending over the flanks, and the abdomen 
is pale grayish white with a buffy tint. 
The width of the black pectoral band varies greatly throughout 
the range of the race. 
