102 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 134 
VOLATINIA JACARINA SPLENDENS (Vieillot): Blue-black Grassquit, 
Arrocero Negrito 
Fringilla splendens Vietttot, Nouveau dictionnaire d’histoire naturelle, nouv. 
ed., vol. 12, June 1817, p. 173. (Cayenne.) 
Wherever tall grass and weeds grew at the borders of the cul- 
tivated fields and pastures this grassquit was found, living as usual 
in little bands that fed in the open in early morning, and remained 
under cover for the remainder of the day. The two skins preserved 
were taken January 11 and 23, a male secured on the date last named 
being in brown-tipped plumage. I recorded one male seen January 27 
as being in the glossy black breeding dress. 
ORYZOBORUS FUNEREUS Sclater: Lesser Rice Grosbeak, Arrocero Prieto 
Oryzoborus funereus P. L. Sctater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, pt. 27, 1859 
(February 1860), p. 378. (Suchapam, Oaxaca, México.) 
The arrocero prieto was found in small numbers in the borders 
of the swampy woodlands along the lower courses of the Catival 
and San Juan Rivers, not far from the sea. On January 27 I re- 
corded two birds in song, so that the nesting season appeared to be 
near. They are shy inhabitants of thickets, though coming at times 
to open perches to sing. 
The two adult males and one female that I collected on Coiba, and 
another female labeled “Coiba” in the Batty collection in the Ameri- 
can Museum of Natural History, differ from the average mainland 
birds in having definitely larger bills. In a series of 129 skins, male 
and female, covering the entire range from Veracruz to western 
Ecuador, there are only two individuals that vary from normal bill 
size. A male from Gatun (U.S.N.M. No. 207550) equals the two 
males from Coiba. A female from Arenosas, Antioquia, Colombia 
(A.M.N.H. No. 388791) has the bill decidedly more massive than 
the Coiba series, though in most of the Colombian birds it is very 
slightly smaller than the average of the population of Central 
America. I attribute the larger dimension in these two to gigantism, 
in other words to an abnormality. The uniform difference evident in 
the four birds from Coiba is so striking that it seems probable that 
they represent an island group that should be recognized as distinct. 
This is a matter, however, that is left for decision whenever more 
material may become available. Size in both sexes, and the shade of 
color in the females, in the four skins from Coiba agree with what 
is found in the mainland group. 
De Schauinsee *? has remarked on the occasional specimens of male 
82 Caldasia, vol. 5, No. 25, Aug. 5, 1951, p. 1004. 
