48 



Nelson, Ne-v Birds from Mexico and Guatemala. t " 



LJan- 



Cyrtonyx merriami, new species. Merriam's Partridge. 



Type, No. 155543, U. S.Nat. Museum, Dept. Agric. coll., $, Mt. Orizaba, 

 Vera Cruz, Mexico, March 21, 1894. Collected bv E. W. Nelson and 

 E. A. Goldman (Orig. No. 1830). 



Distribution. — East slope of Mt. Orizaba, Vera Cruz. 



Description. — The general pattern of head markings of merriami is 

 much as in 7nontezumce, except that the black chin and throat area extends 

 down to the chestnut on the lower neck and breast with no intervening 

 white collar; the white superciliary band which extends under the black 

 throat patch as a white collar in mo7itezumcB, ends on each side of the 

 neck in merriami. Bluish-black auricular patches extend forward on the 

 sides of neck and form a broad junction with the black of the throat. 

 The crown and crest are darker than in inontezumce, the light shaft-streaks 

 on the back of the neck and shoulders are buffy whitish, becoming more 

 and more intensely colored posteriorly, until on the longer scapulars and 

 tertiaries they are almost or quite chestnut ; the webs of the tertiaries are 

 gray, becoming browner near the tips, and are crossed by several ti\ins- 

 verse, oblong black spots which are much narrower and more like bars 

 than are the corresponding markings in montezumce ; the back and rump 

 are blackish with golden huffy shaft- lines, brown mottling and narrow 

 ashy edgings to the feathers ; the upper tail-coverts are ashy with heavy 

 rustj' shaft-lines and several transverse black bars on each web of the 

 feathers; the chestnut area of the breast and belly is as in montezumce, 

 but is of a lighter shade ; the sides of the breast and flanks are slaty 

 gray, lighter than in the latter species and marked with numerous round 

 white spots about half the size of those in that bird. On the posterior 

 portion of the flanks the white spotting is replaced by spots of buffy and 

 chestnut. The rest of the lower parts are black as in tnoniezumce. 



It is named in honor of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, under whose 

 direction our work in Mexico has been done. 



Tliis Partridge appears to be closely related to Odontophorus 

 meleagris of Wagler (Isis, 1832, p. 277), but differs in having the 

 white spots of the flanks on a background of ashy gray instead 

 of black. Like that species it lacks the white collar on the 

 neck, which in moiiteziiince separates the black of the throat from 

 the chestnut of the breast. Heretofore meleagris has been placed 

 as a synonym of monteznmcB., but the discovery of C. merriami 

 with the same general style of markings given for meleagris, indi- 

 cates that the latter is probably a well-marked species which has 

 failed of recognition through lack of material. It was described 

 from Mexico and should take its proper place in ornithological 

 literature. 



