Auk 
Jan. 
48 NELSON, Wew Birds from Mexico and Guatemala. 
Cyrtonyx merriami, new species. MERRIAM’S PARTRIDGE. 
Type, No. 155543, U. S. Nat. Museum, Dept. Agric. coll., g, Mt. Orizaba, 
Vera Cruz, Mexico, March 21, 1894. Collected by E. W. Nelson and 
E. A. Goldman (Orig. No. 1830). 
Distribution.— East slope of Mt. Orizaba, Vera Cruz. 
Description.—The general pattern of head markings of merréam7 is 
much as in montezume, except that the black chin and throat area extends 
down to the chestnut on the lower neck and breast with no intervening 
white collar; the white superciliary band which extends under the black 
throat patch as a white collar in monzfezum@, ends on each side of the 
neck in merrzamz. Bluish-black auricular patches extend forward on the 
sides of neck and form a broad junction with the black of the throat. 
The crown and crest are darker than in montezume, the light shaft-streaks 
on the back of the neck and shoulders are bufty whitish, becoming more 
and more intensely colored posteriorly, until on the longer scapulars and 
tertiaries they are almost or quite chestnut; the webs of the tertiaries are 
gray, becoming browner near the tips, and are crossed by several trans- 
verse, oblong black spots which are much narrower and more like bars 
than are the corresponding markings in montezume; the back and rump 
are blackish with golden buffy shaft-lines, brown mottling and narrow 
ashy edgings to the feathers; the upper tail-coverts are ashy with heavy 
rusty shaft-lines and several transverse black bars on each web ot the 
feathers; the chestnut area of the breast and belly is as in montezume, 
but is of a lighter shade; the sides of the breast and flanks are slaty 
gray, lighter than in the latter species and marked with numerous round 
white spots about half the size of those in that bird. On the posterior 
portion of the flanks the white spotting is replaced by spots of buffy and 
chestnut. The rest of the lower parts are black as in montezume. 
It is named in honor of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, under whose 
direction our work in Mexico has been done. 
This Partridge appears to be closely related to Odontophorus 
meleagris of Wagler (Isis, 1832, p. 277), but differs in having the 
white spots of the flanks on a background of ashy gray instead 
of black. Like that species it lacks the white collar on the 
neck, which in montezume separates the black of the throat from 
the chestnut of the breast. Heretofore me/eagris has been placed 
as a synonym of montezuma@, but the discovery of C. merriami 
with the same general style of markings given for meleagris, indi- 
cates that the latter is probably a well-marked species which has 
failed of recognition through lack of material. It was described 
from Mexico and should take its proper place in ornithological 
literature. 
