' ig2 o J Todd, The Genus Eupsychortyx. Zlo 



coloration in both sexes. There is, however, an unusual amount 

 of individual variation in the present form, some specimens ap- 

 proaching decoratus, while others, with their pale throats and 

 under parts and more heavily black-streaked superciliaries, verge 

 more toward cristatus. So far as the evidence afforded by the 

 examination and comparison of specimens goes, therefore, we 

 would be justified in concluding that littoralis is not a subspecies 

 or geographical race in the same sense as decoratus, for example, 

 but rather stands for a set of individuals showing the respective 

 characters of both decoratus and cristatus, combined in varying 

 degree. In short, littoralis bears all the earmarks of being an 

 intergrade between these two forms, occurring in the region where 

 their respective ranges might naturally be supposed to meet 

 and overlap. At Fundacion, south of Santa Marta, we find 

 nearly typical decoratus, while at Rio Hacha, at the western edge 

 of the Goajira Peninsula, we get a bird which is clearly cristatus, 

 although slightly tending towards the other. It so happens, 

 however, that west of Rio Hacha the heavy forest of the Tropical 

 Zone comes right down to the coast, constituting a barrier to 

 the spread of either form which may be quite as effective as the 

 high mountain mass of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta itself. 

 Indeed, it is far more likely that actual intermingling of the two 

 forms, if it occurs at all, would be found in the low, more open 

 country to the southward of the Sierra Nevada, which is pre- 

 sumably better adapted to the needs of such a bird as this. Un- 

 fortunately no evidence bearing on this point is yet available; 

 it is clear, however, that if cristatus is a derivative of the leucopogon 

 group, or vice versa, one or the other must have originally passed 

 through this narrow gap to occupy its present range, assuming, 

 of course, that topographical and other conditions were the same 

 as at present. 



But even if intergradation between cristatus and the leucopogon 

 group could be fully proven it would not therefore necessarily 

 follow (in the opinion of the writer) that the two should be re- 

 garded as conspecific. Each has characters not possessed by the 

 other, to belittle which by degrading the forms in question to 

 subspecific rank would seem to be highly inadvisable. Subspecies 

 are of course "representative forms," but "representative forms" 



