4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I45 



dans le serie comme espece douteuse ou a etudier, soit le nom de 

 Cathartes urbicola, soit encore mieux celui de Cathartcs Ricordi." 



While the black vulture undoubtedly is one of the birds to which 

 these citations refer, the details of the accounts include the turkey 

 vulture and possibly the condor in such a mixture that the names 

 are of uncertain application. The earliest valid name is brasiliensis 

 Bonaparte of 1850. 



CORAGYPS ATRATUS FOETENS (Lichtenstein) 



Cathartes foetens Lichtenstein, Verz. Ausgest. Saug. Vogel Zool. Mus. Berlin, 

 1818, p. 30. (Based on "Iribu Azara" ; Paraguay; restricted to Asuncion, 

 Paraguay, by Brodkorb, in 1944.) 



Characters. — Size similar to that of C. a. atratus, but light markings 

 on under surface of primaries more restricted, the under wing defi- 

 nitely darker than in the two more northern races. Wing, male (10 

 specimens) 412-437 (421), female (5 specimens) 416-422 (419). 



Resident in the Andes from northern Ecuador (Quito) to northern 

 Bolivia (Cochabamba) ; in Chile, south to Aysen; Paraguay, including 

 the Chaco, from the north-central section (Horqueta, 200 kilometers 

 west of Puerto Casado), and Argentina south to the Rio Negro; 

 probably through Uruguay (no specimens examined). 



The large size of the southern group has been the main cause of 

 confusion in recognition of races in this species, since when birds' of 

 southern South America have been examined they have not appeared 

 separable from northern representatives of equivalent measurements. 

 This misunderstanding has completely overshadowed the vast tropical 

 population of uniformly small dimension. The true status was clearly 

 outlined by Brodkorb (1944, pp. 115-121), but his analysis has been 

 disregarded since he applied the name of the nominate race to the 

 large birds of both north temperate and south temperate areas in 

 spite of their wide separation by another form. 



With regard to eggs, Colonel Wolfe writes that a set of 2 from 

 Argentina in his collection measures 74.5x45.0 and 72.0X47.0, and 

 that the average of 54 eggs taken in Chile, according to figures fur- 

 nished by A. W. Johnson, is 72.58x49.5 mm. These figures are close 

 to the sizes found in the typical race of the north. 



II. THE CRESTED BOBWHITE, COLINUS CRISTATUS 

 (LINNAEUS), OF WESTERN CHIRIQUI 



The quail of Panama, described as Colinus cristatus panamensis 

 by Dickey and van Rossem, is locally common from western Veraguas 

 through Code to the western area of the Province of Panama, To 

 the south it ranges down the eastern side of the Azuero Peninsula 



