on the Genus Coereba. 499 



CCEREBA MEXICANA. 



Certhiola mexicana Sclater, Proc. Zoo!. Soc, Lond. 1856, 

 p. 286 (S. Mexico). 



Careba mexicana Ridgw. Birds N. & M. Amer. pt. ii. 1902, 

 p. 409 [Southern Mexico (States of Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, &c.) 

 through Central America and Pacific coast of northern 

 South America to Ecuador]. 



Specimens examined. Ten from INIexico, six from Nica- 

 ragua, fourteen from Guatemala, eight from Costa Rica, 

 five from Panama. 



Hab. Southern lowlands and southern coast-districts of 

 Mexico j Guatemala ; Nicaragua ; Costa Rica and Panama 

 (Chiriqui and Veragua). 



In this continental form the upper parts are characterized 

 by a striking contrast between the colour of the pileum and 

 that of the mantle and scapulars. This is characteristic of 

 all Central and South American species of the genus with 

 the exception of two species (C luteola and C. guianensis) 

 found in the north of South America and the races which 

 inhabit Gorgona Island (west coast of Columbia) and San 

 Miguel Island in the Bay of Panama. 



This contrast is visible at a glance, and, with the exceptions 

 just mentioned, serves to easily distinguish a continental 

 example of the genus from a West Indian one, in which the 

 upper parts (rump excepted) are uniformly (or very nearly 

 so) coloured black or some dark shade of it. 



In C. mexicana the pileum is sooty blackish or brownish 

 black ; the hind-neck, mantle, and scapulars are uniform 

 greyish olive or olive-grey ; the rump is yellowish olive-green, 

 and the under parts a uniform and pale greenish yellow. 



So far as I can deduce from the material at hand, this 

 species would appear to extend from its northern limits in 

 Southern Mexico through the Central American States 

 indicated above, as far as the Isthmus of Panama, where 

 it meets and merges with a slightly differentiated race 

 (C. mexicana Columbiana), characterized by possessing an 

 olive-yellow rump as compared with an olive-green one, and 

 also by a slightly larger wing-spot and by being a slightly 



SKIl. IX. VOL. VI. 2 M 



