[From " Novitates Zoologicae" Vol. XX. February, 1913.] 



CRITICAL NOTES ON THE TYPES OF LITTLE-KNOWN 

 SPECIES OP NEOTROPICAL BIRDS. PART II.* 



BY C. E. HELLMAYK 



IN the following lines I propose to discuss another series of type-specimens 

 which I have had the opportunity of examining during the last six years, 

 and it is hoped that these notes may not be devoid of interest to the student of 

 neotropical ornithology. Acknowledgments for the loan of material are dne to 

 the same gentlemen as mentioned in the first part of this paper, and also to Dr. 

 J. A. Allen, Mr. 0. Bangs, Dr. Hans Gadow, and Mr. F. V. McDonnell. 



48. Thryothorus coraya and allies. 



Among South American Wrens this is unquestionably the most puzzling and 

 most difficult group. It embraces seven or eight races which, although sometimes 

 separated by wide tracts of country, differ one from another only in slight, but 

 fairly constant characters. For a long time the typical T. coraya, " Le Coraya de 

 Cayenne " of Buffon and Daubenton, was the only recognised form whose range 

 was supposed to extend over nearly the whole Amazonian subregion from French 

 Guiana to the eastern slopes of the Andes in Ecuador and Peru. The first attempt 

 to discriminate local races of this wide-ranging bird was made by the late 

 R. B. Sharpe, who, in 1881, described Thryothorus amazonicm from the Ucayali, 

 and T. griseipectus from the north bank of the Marailon.f In 1903 the present 

 writer J gave a short review of the known forms, which, in the light of the 

 ample material now at hand, requires considerable modification. Quite recently 

 Lord Brabourne and Mr. Chubb have dealt with the Guianan representatives of 

 the group, but being unfamiliar with the variation of these birds, and unacquainted 

 with the existing literature, they have fallen into several errors, and added, 

 furthermore, to the confusion by creating two useless synonyms. || So much about 

 the previous papers relating to the subject. 



The careful study of a large series leaves no doubt that T. coraya, T, ridgwayi, 

 T. amazonicus, T. griseipectus, T. griseipectus caurensis, T. herberti, and T. cantator 

 are merely representatives of the same specific type, agreeing with one another in 

 all essential points, and replacing each other geographically. It is probable that 

 T. albicentris Tacz. H also belongs to this group ; unfortunately I have not been able 

 to secure an example of this rare species. 



The total of specimens examined in the present connection amounts to seventy- 

 two certainly a far greater number than has yet been at the disposition of any 



* Part I. ; Nov. Zool. xiii. 1900, pp. 305-52. 



t Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vi. pp. 235, 236. 



J Journ.filr Ornith. 51, pp. 532-4. 



Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (8 ser.) x. August 1912, pp. 261-2. 



|| In the same paper the authors propose the new name Pteroglossus roraimae, which, again, is only 

 a synonym of P. araeari atricollis (P. L. S. Mull.). See Berlepsch & Hartert, Nov. Zool. ix, 1902, 

 p. 102 ; Berlepsch, Nov. Zool. xv, 1908, p. 281 ; Hellmayr, I.e. xvii, 1910, p. 397. The record of Tliam- 

 nopliilus borbae from British Guiana is likewise a mistake, the birds from that country being referable 

 to T. major semifasciatus (Cab.), which has a wide range in northern South America. 



1 P. Z. S. Load. 1882, p. 5 (1882. Chirimoto, N. Peru). 



QQQOQQ 



