168 Descriptions of JVev) Species of Birds. 



This species was first noticed by me as an addition to our 

 Fauna under the name of C. hrasilianus^ in the Annals of the 

 Lyceum, as referred to above. At the time of describing, I 

 had some misgivings as to the propriety of considering them 

 identical, and upon a more recent investigation, am convinced 

 of their being specifically distinct. 



Mr. Cassin, in his Illustrations of the Birds of California and 

 Texas, as above cited, refers it provisionally to the C. sajpiti 

 Bonap. The description given by Prince Bonaparte (Consp. 

 Avium, p. 63) of his species is so short and with so few cha- 

 racters, as to make a comparison difficult, but sufficient I think 

 to consider them unlike. He gives no measurements and 

 describes by comparing it with C. virginianus, which he says, 

 it is very much like, but smaller, and the color cinereous, not 

 blackish ; he gives as its habitat, Amer. Merid. 



The rufous spots on the wings are so marked in the Texas 

 species, that I think they certainly would have been character- 

 ized, if occurring in the one described by him, as " sapiti" 

 Their locality is also very different. 



I therefore think they may be viewed as distinct species 

 until proved to be identical. 



Polioptila melanura. 



" Cnlicivora atricapilla, Swain." — Lawr. Ann. Lye. V., p. 124. 



" mexicana, Bonap." — Cassin, Birds of Cal. <£ Tex., p. 163, 



Male. — Entire crown glossy black ; upper plumage pale 

 bluish-grey ; wings dusky-brown, edged with greyish-white 

 externally ; tail dark brownish-black, with the whole of the 

 outer web of the outer tail feather and the entire tip white, the 

 second feather has the external half of the outer web and the 

 tip white, the third has the narrowest possible edging of white 



