BIRDS OF THE TRES MARIAS ISLANDS. 53 



Piranga bidentata flammea (Ridgway). Tres Marias Tanager. 



Pyranf/a lidentata Lawr., Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., XIV, p. 281, 1871; Mem. 



Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., II, p. 274 (part), 1874. 

 Piramja flammea Ridgway, Man. N. Am. Birds, p. 457, 1887. 



Several species of birds were very much at home about the settle- 

 ment on Maria Madre, and among these the brilliant Tres Marias tana- 

 ger was one of the most numerous. Like Grayson's oriole, they came 

 daily to the veranda railing and investigated the shrubs and small 

 trees in the court and flower garden at the custom-house. These birds 

 were common and generally distributed in the scrubby forest on the 

 lower parts of Maria Madre and Maria Magdalena, and probably occur 

 on Maria Cleofa, although none were seen there. Their habits were 

 very much like those of Piranga bidentata on the mainland. On the 

 island, however, these tanagers were most numerous within a few hun- 

 dred feet of sea level, while their relatives of the mainland inhab- 

 ited oak forests at an altitude of 2,000 or 3,000 feet. They have a 

 short warbling song, which is similar to, but less musical than, that of 

 the mainland bird. They were seen hunting for food in the small tree 

 tops of the scantier forest growths rather than in the more densely 

 wooded areas and were very fat. 



P. bidentata was described by Swainson from a specimen in the 

 Bullock collection, taken at Temascaltepec, southwest of the Valley of 

 Mexico, on the Pacific slope of the mountains. It was described as 

 having the 'head, neck, and under parts golden'. This style of colora- 

 tion is shown in specimens from various localities in Jalisco, Siualoa, 

 and the Tres Marias Islands. Judging from specimens in the National 

 Museum and from the results of recent work, tauagers of this descrip- 

 tion are only found north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, on the arid 

 western slope of Mexico, and are not common. The Tres Marias 

 tanager is closely related to typical P. bidentata, and the males are so 

 closely alike in color that it requires careful scrutiny to find distin- 

 guishing characters. Tn P. flammea the wliite tips of the greater 

 and lesser wing coverts are larger and clearer white than in P. 

 bidentata, thus rendering the two wing bands more conspicuous. The 

 white spots on the outer rectrices are smaller and confined to the inner 

 webs, except at the extreme tip; in P. bidentata these marks occupy 

 most of the terminal third of the feathers. In general color of the 

 body the two forms are indistinguishable. The bill of P. flammea 

 averages longer and is decidedly more swollen, especially toward the 

 tip; this difference is one of the most important characters of the 

 island form. The female of P. flammea can be distinguished only by 

 the larger bill and the restriction of the white spot on the outer pair 

 of tail feathers. 



