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CRITICAL NOTES ON THE TYPES OF LITTLE-KNOWN 

 SPECIES OF NEOTROPICAL BIRDS.-Paet IL* 



By C. E. HELLMAYR. 



IN the following lines I propose to discuss another series of type-specimens 

 which I have had the opportnnit}' of examining during the last six years, 

 and it is hoped that these notes may not be devoid of interest to the student of 

 neotropical ornithology. Acknowledgments for the loan of material are due to 

 the same gentlemen as mentioned in the first part of this paper, and also to Dr. 

 J. A. Allen, Mr. 0. Bangs, Dr. Hans Gadow, and Mr. F. V. McC'onnell. 



48. Thryothorus coraya and allies. 



Among South American Wrens this is unquestionably the most pnzzling and 

 most difficult gronp. It embraces seven or eight races which, although sometimes 

 separated by wide tracts of country, differ one from another only in slight, but 

 fairly constant characters. For a long time the typical T. coraya, " Le Coraya de 

 Cayenne " of Buffon and Daubeuton, was the only recognised form whose range 

 was supposed to extend over nearly the whole Amazonian subregion from French 

 Guiana to the eastern slopes of the Andes in Ecuador and Pern. The first attempt 

 to discriminate local races of this wide-ranging bird was made by the late 

 R. B. Sharpe, who, in 1881, described Thryothorus amazoiu'ciis from the Ucayali, 

 and T. ffriseipecttis from the north bank of the Maranon.-j- In 1903 the present 

 writer I gave a short review of the known forms, which, in the light of the 

 ample material now at hand, requires considerable modification. Quite recently 

 Lord Brabourne and Mr. Chubb § have dealt with the Guianan representatives of 

 the group, but being unfamiliar with the variation of these birds, and unacquainted 

 with the existing literature, they have fallen into several errors, and added, 

 furthermore, to the confusion by creating two useless synonyms. [| So much about 

 the previous papers relating to the subject. 



The careful study of a large series leaves no doubt that 7'. coraya, T. ridgwayi, 

 T. amazonicus, T. griseipectus, T. griseipecttis caurcrisis, T. herberti, and T. cantator 

 are merely representatives of the same specific type, agreeing with one another in 

 all essential points, and replacing each other geographically. It is probable that 

 T. albiventris Tacz. ^ also belongs to this group ; unfortunately I have not been able 

 to secure an example of this rare species. 



The total of specimens examined in the present connection amounts to seventy- 

 two — certainly a far greater number than has yet been at the disposition of any 



• I'art 1. ; Nuv. Zaul. xiii. 190«, pp. 305-52. 



t rat. JJ. JiTit. Mux. vi. pp. 235, 2.1fi. 



X Jiiurii.fur Ornith. 51, pp. 5:i2-l. 



\ Ann. Mag. .Vat. Ilinl. {H ser.) x. August rjl2, pp. 261-2. 



II In tbe Marnc pajjer the authors propose the new name Ptcroglosius rofaiinae, which, again, is only 

 a Hj-noiiym of P. aranari atriaillU (!'. L. S. Mull.). Sec Uerlep.sch !c Hartert, Nop. Zoo}. i.\, 1902, 

 p. 102; Berlepsch, Sm. Xnnl. xv, I'JOS, p. 281 ; llellmayr, l.i: xvii, I'JIO. p. 397.— The record of Tha,m- 

 TwphUut hrirhae from British Guiana is likewise a mistake, the birds from that country being referable 

 to T. mujor Kt-mifaHCiatim (Cab.), which has a wide range in northern Koutli America. 



^ P.Z.S. Lond. 18S2, p. 5 (18S2.— Cliirimoto, N. I'eru). 



