of an Expedition up the Capim River. 491 



group at the mouth of the Amazon, and without doubt 

 it should be considered the true Amazonian equivalent 

 and representative of C. tataupa of Southern Brazil, well 

 known in the State of Rio de Janeiro and neighbouring 

 districts. 



Another ornithological result of our Capim expedition 

 was the long-desired clearing-up of the Crax pinima problem, 

 dating from the time of Natterer, and the critical revision 

 of a series of allied species, always more or less doubtful, of 

 Cracidae. Some of these results have already been announced 

 in a provisional manner by Dr. Sclater in a short note in 

 'The Ibis'* and by myself f. This is a good opportunity of 

 giving some details on the question. 



Natterer had obtained in 1835, at Praia do Cajutuba, 

 Para, a female specimen of a " Mutiim/' which was there 

 called by the Indian name " Mutum-pinima " — that is, 

 Spotted (or Painted) Curassow. He made o£ it a new 

 species with the name Crax pinima, though it seems from 

 v. Pelzeln's extracts from Natterer's original notes that he 

 was somewhat in doubt whether it was not merely the female 

 of Crax sclateri Gray = Crax fasciolata Spix. 



The type-specimen of Crax pinima was first described by 

 v. Pelzelu (On. Bras. p. 341) in 1871, and Natterer's MS. 

 name was adopted. 



After that time several naturalists who were treating of 

 South-American Cracidae (Gray, Sclater and Salvin, Ogilvie- 

 Grant) wrote about Crax pinima, identifying with it certain 

 individuals more or less agreeing with v. Pelzeln's descrip- 

 tion. But it must be repeated that these birds were in 

 every case female individuals, and that these individuals 

 shewed considerable variations (leaving a large margin to 

 conjecture as to whether they were due to specific dif- 

 ferences or to diversities of age and maturity); and I must 

 add that no figure in books accessible to me, not even in 

 Dr. Sclatcr's two most useful essays " On the Curassows 



* [bis, L898, p. 462. 



t Groeldi, 'Avea do Brazil,' Rio do Janeiro, 1894 -98, p. '■)'■*'■'> 



2 k 2 



