312 BROOKLYN INSTITUTE MUSEUM. SCIENCE BULLETIN 2. 6. 



which are dusky. The primary-coverts are also strongly dull rufous 

 brownish as are also the outer webs and tips of the greater wing- 

 coverts. The pattern of coloration is similar to that of the wings of 

 the yellow -billed cuckoo (C. americanus}. It is possible this rufous 

 shading is characteristic of immature birds. 



MICROCOCCYX PUMILUS (Strickland). 



Coccyzus pumilus Strickl., Contrib. Orn. 1852. p.' 28. PI. 82 ; Berlepsch 

 & Hartert, p. 97. 



In the American Museum collection is a specimen collected by 

 Klages at Maripa on the Caura. The forehead, crown and occiput are 

 gull gray; the mantle and lower back mouse gray; the two colors blend- 

 ing insensibly into one another at the base of the occiput. The wings 

 and tail are browner; the primaries blackish, especially toward the tip; 

 the ends of the rectrices are black, narrowly tipped with white ; sides of 

 head, chin and throat hazel brown; breast and belly pale buffy; flanks, 

 thighs and under wing- and tail-coverts buff; under surface of tail gray, 

 the inner webs of the rectrices buffbasally. Wing 103 ; tail 105 ; bill 17 mm. 



Rare. An adult male was taken, on my first expedition, at Quiri- 

 bana de Caicara, April 29, 1905, and a second adult male at Caicara, 

 May 2, 1905. 



Eye carmine, eye-lids carmine; bill black; feet slate gray. 



PlAYA MELANOGASTRA (Vieillot). 



Cuculus melanogaster Vieill., Nouv. Diet. VIII. 1817. p. 236. 

 Piaya melanogastra Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 97. 



Not observed by the writer on the Orinoco proper, but included in 

 Berlepsch and Hartert's list based on a single specimen collected by 

 Klages at Suapure on the Caura River. There is now a specimen in 

 the American Museum collection taken at the foot of Mt. Duida. 



PIAYA CAYANA CAYANA Linnaeus. 

 Cuculus cayanus L., Syst. Nat. ed. 12. 1766. p. 170. 

 Piaya cayana guianensis Berlepsch, Ibis. 1884. p. 435. (Angostura) ; 



Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 97, part (Suapure and La Pricion, Caura 



River, Venez.) ; Hellmayr, Novit. Zool. XIII. 1906. p. 43. 

 Piaya cayana cayana Hellmayr, Novit. Zool. XIV. 1907. p. 35; 



Stone, Proc. Phila. Acad. Sci. LX. 1908. pp. 497-8 (Suapure). 



A study of the specimens in this museum from the Orinoco 



