PIATA. 531 



2. Piaya mexicana. 



Cuculus mewicanus, Sw. Phil. Mag. new ser. i. p. 440'. 



Piaya mexicana, Scl. P. Z. S. 1859, p. 388 \ 



Pyrrhococcyx mexicanus, Finsch, Abhandl. naturw. Ver. zu Bremen, 1870, p. 356'. 



Piaya melheri, Duges, La Nat. i. p. 138 *. 



Piaya ridibundus, Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 293 '; BuU.U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 38 (?)' ; 



Sumichrast, La Nat. v. p. 239 (?) \ 

 Piaya cayenensis, Salv. P. Z. S. 1883, p. 426 '. 

 Piaya cay ana, Ferrari-Perez, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. ix. p. 162'; Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xix. 



p. 373 (partim) ". 



P. eayance similis, sed supra omnino pallidior et rufescentior : subtus quoque pallidior, ventre imo, tectricibus 

 subcaudalibus et tibiis griseis, quam abdomen reliqniim paulo saturatioribus ; caudse reotricibus lateralibus 

 subtus et supra rufescentibus, apicibu.s albis et fascia subterminali conspicua nigra notatis. Long, tota 18-0, 

 alae 0-2, caudaj rectr. med. 12-6, rectr. lat. 6-0, rostri a rictu 1-25, tarsi 1-4. (Descr. feinin» ex Chietla, 

 Puebla, Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 

 cJ feminae similis. 



Bab. Mexico, Mazatlan (Grayson ^ ^, Xantus ^, Bischoff^), San Bias ( W. B. Richardson), 

 Hacienda de San Marcos {W. Lloyd), Zapotlan {W. B. Bichardson), Guanajuato, 

 Guadalajara [Duges), Bolanos, Colima [W. B. Bichardson), Tupila E., Plains of 

 Colima (Xantus ^), Temiscaltepec (Bullock i), Acapulco (A. H. Markham ^, Mrs. E. 

 H. Smith), Xautipa in Guerrero (Mrs. H. H. Smith), Chietla in the Canton de 

 Cordova (Ferrari- Perez ^), Juchatengo (M. Trujillo), Juquila (Boucard ^), Oaxaca 

 (Fenochio), Tehuantepec 1 (Sumichrast^''). 



This, is a Western Mexican form of the eastern and southern P. cayana, and is found 

 as far north as the neighbourhood of Mazatlan, and thence southwards through the 

 States of Jalisco, Guerrero, and Oaxaca. On the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as already- 

 stated, it blends with P. cayana, and beyond this district no trace of it is found in 

 Central America, but in the far south the peculiar feature of the rufous tail reappears. 

 In size it slightly exceeds its close ally, and this, too, is characteristic of the southern 

 form. 



Swainson's type was obtained by Bullock at Temiscaltepec ^, on the western edge of 

 the Mexican tableland ; and it has been found since that time by all collectors who 

 have worked in the western parts of the republic, from the edge of the highlands to 

 the sea-coast. 



Its habits, of which nothing is on record, doubtless resemble those of P. cayana. 



3. Piaya minuta. 



Cuculus cyanus, var. /3, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 170*. 



Cuculus minutus, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. N. viii. p. 277 ^ 



Piaya minuta. Gray, Gen. Birds, ii. p. 457 ' ; Scl. & Sak. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 195 ' ; 1879, p. 537 ' ; 



Layard, Ibis, 1873, p. 393 ' ; Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xix. p. 378 \ 

 ? Cuculus rutilus, Illig. Abh. Ak. Wissensch. Berl. 1812, p. 224'. 

 Piaya rutila, Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. vii. p. 300 °. 



67* 



