110 Mr. W. 11. Ogilvie-Grant on 



-|— CoLINUS VIRGINIANUS MACULATUS NelsOIl. 



I have again looked over our series of C. texanus, and 

 compared typical male examples from Western Texas with 

 males from Tamaulipas obtained at Xicotencal, Sota la 

 Marina, and Sierra Madre, above Ciudad Victoria, which 

 must be typical of Mr. Nelson's C. v. maculatus, and again 

 I fail to see any differences whatever between them. The 

 male from Alta Mira (cf. Auk, xix. pi. xiv. fig. G) is 

 apparently an abnormally dark specimen, while the photo- 

 graph of the typical C. texanus (fig. 5) must have been taken 

 from an unusually light bird. 



In the original description of C. v. macula tits (cf. Auk, 

 xvi. p. 26) we read : — 



" Lower neck and fore part of breast usually plain dull 

 rvfous ; rest of lower parts, including lower tail-coverts, of 

 the same colour, heavily marked on borders of feathers with 

 black and white s_ ots on sides of feathers near tips." 



In the description of plate xiv. we find the same specimen 

 described as having : — 



" Breast and rest of under parts to crissum dark rufous, 

 spotted and mottled more or less sparingly with black and 

 white." 



Which of these two descriptions are we to accept as 

 correct ? 



It is evident from the " Remarks " added to the original 

 description that Mr. Nelson's series of C. v. macula/as 

 exhibits considerable variation inter se, for he writes : — 

 " The series at hand shews conclusively that C. v. texanus 

 grades through the present bird directly into 0. (sic) gray- 

 soni, thus reducing the latter to a subspecies of 0. (sic) 

 virginianus ." Mr. Nelson can hardly expect ornithologists 

 to accept this extraordinary statement ! C. graysoni belongs 

 to an entirely different section of the genus. 



I COLINUS GRAYSONI MGRIPECTUS NelsOIl. 



Mr. Nelson now finds that the type of this " subspecies " 

 has nothing to do with C. graysoni, but differs from C. pec- 

 toraiis, to which I referred it, in being decidedly larger. 



