THAMN0PHILU8. 203 



Biictzotz and Peto in Yucatan, Meco and Cozumel Is. (G. F. Gaumer); Bbitish 

 Honduras, Orange Walk {G. F. Gaumer), Belize, San Antonio and Cayo (JBlan- 

 caneaux); Guatemala (Velasquez '^^^, Constancia ''■^), Choctum, Chisec, Cahabon, 

 Coban, San Geronimo, Savana Grande, Escuintla road, Volcan de Fuego, Duenas ^ 

 {0.8.& F. D. G.), Eetalhuleu (W. B. Eichardson) ; Hondueas, Omoa {Leyland % 

 San Pedro {G. M. Whitely 27), Truxillo (Townsend^^) ; Salvador, La Libertad and 

 Volcan de San Miguel (W. B. Richardson) ; Nicaragua, Chinandega and Volcan 

 de Chinandega {W. B. Eichardson), Sucuya i'' and Los Sabalos ^^ (.Nutting), 

 Grey town (Holland ^^) ; Costa Rica, San Jose (v. Frantzius^^), San Mateo 

 (Cooper ^^, Boucard^^), Sarchi (Cooper ^^), Bebedero de Nicoya (Arce), La Palma 

 (Nutting ^°), Jimenez, Las Trojas, Cartago, Naranjo de Cartago, Pozo Azul de 

 Pirris (Zeledon ^o) ; Panama, David (Bridges ^), Bugaba (ArcS ^^), Lion Hill 

 (M'Leannan ^^). — Venezuela "^ ; Trinidad ^ ; Guiana ^ '^ ; Lower Amazons '^. 



The position of the Central American form of this species with respect to the typical 

 bird from Guiana has long been a matter of doubt. When the bird was first found in 

 Guatemala by Velasquez ^ his specimens were referred by Bonaparte the male to 

 T. doliatus (L.) and the female to T. rutilus (Vieill.) ; the relationship of the sexes 

 being then not understood. The birds obtained by Salle and Boucard in Southern 

 Mexico and by ourselves in Guatemala were also called T. doliatus. Cabanis and Heine, 

 in 1859, separated the Mexican bird as T. affinis ^2 on its supposed larger size and the 

 wider separation of all the transverse bands. Mr. Allen, in 1889 ^^, endorsed these 

 diflferential characters, but changed the name of the Mexican bird to T. doliatus 

 mexicanus, the term affinis having been used for a bird of the same or an allied genus. 

 The name T. affinis had in the meantime been often applied to the' Central American 

 bird. A further separation was made by Mr. Eidgway when he described a male and 

 a female from Honduras as T. intermedius ^^. The latter birds he compared with 

 T. nigricristatus, but from the fact of the bases of the feathers of the crest being white 

 T. doliatus must be its nearest ally. The type of the male, which Mr. Ridgway has 

 kindly sent us for examination, proves this to be the case, and we are inclined to think 

 T. intermedius to be an unusually dark form of T. doliatus, just as the Yucatan birds 

 are unusually light. 



We have now a large series of this bird before us from all parts of its range, and 

 comparing Mexican specimens with others from Guiana we do not see any tangible 

 grounds for separating them. Difference in size there is practically none, and as for 

 the width of the alternate black and white bands of the plumage, so much variation 

 occurs everywhere that we are unable to associate any particular style with any parti- 

 cular area. We believe that the birds which have the narrowest white bands on the 

 upper surface are the oldest, as young birds with only a trace of immaturity are often 

 widely banded, and even, as in the case of some Yucatan specimens before us, nearly 

 spotless white on the abdomen. 



26* 



