BIRDS OF WOKTH AND MIDDLE AMEBIOA. 225 



VIREOLANIUS MELITOPHRYS Bonaparte. 

 VV BUS' SHMKE-VIKEO. 



Adult male. — Pileum and hindneck plain slate-gray, the former bor- 

 dered along each side by a broad superciliary stripe of saffron 3'ellow, 

 this paler anteriorly and posteriorly, terminating in a white spot on 

 side of nape; lores dull white, except posterior portion; a broad black 

 postocular stripe, occupying more than upper half of auricular region, 

 anteriorly extending narrowly beneath ej^e to posterior portion of 

 lores; lower portion of auricular region, suborbital region (except a 

 narrow line on lower eyelid), malar region and under parts, white; a 

 black submalar streak, or series of streaks, along each side of throat; 

 band across chest chestnut, this continued along sides and flanks, 

 becoming broken and less distinct on the latter, which are strongly 

 tinged with olive-gray; back, scapulars, rump, upper tail-coverts, tail, 

 and wings, plain olive-green, the longer primaries edged for terminal 

 half with white; bill black; iris greenish white;" legs and feet light 

 cinnamon-brownish, in dried skins, flesh color in life;'* length (skin), 

 165; wing, 85; tail, 67; exposed culmen, lY; tarsus, 24.5; middle 

 toe, 14." 



Adult ferrwle ( Vf. — Similar to the adult male, as described above, but 

 decidedly paler and duller in color; gray of pileum and hindneck light 

 mouse gray or deep smoke gray, instead of slate-gray, changing grad- 

 ually into the dull grayish olive-green of back; superciliary stripe 

 canary yellow, instead of saffron or cadmium yellow; stripe on side 

 of head mouse gray, with whitish shaft-streaks, instead of black; black 

 submalar streak broader, longer, and more "solid" or continuous; 

 chestnut band across chest paler (cinnamon-rufous), and not continued 

 laterally along sides, the sides of breast being ochraceous-buff', fading 

 gradually to very pale olive-gray on flanks; breast and abdomen dull 



^According to Salvin and Godman. 



S Description and measurements from no. 143387, coll. CJ. S. National Museum (Bio- 

 logical Survey collection), adult male, Jico, Vera Cruz, July 14, 1893; E. W. Nelson. 

 An adult male from Calderas, Volcan de Fuego (7,300 ft. alt.), Guatemala (no. 40144, 

 coll. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.), differs in having the yellow superciliary stripe uniform 

 yellow from end to end, the color being lemon instead of saffron; the black submalar 

 streak narrower and shorter, and the chestnut baud across chest apparently narrower 

 and darker chestnut; wing 78, tail 70, exposed culmen 17, tarsus 25, middle toe 15. 



"Described from no. 52358, coll. U. S. Nat. Mus.; collected "near the City of 

 Mexico;" received from Osbert Salvin. This specimen is so conspicuously different 

 in coloration from the male from Jico, Vera Cruz, described above, that were it not 

 for Salvin and Godman' s description of a female from Guatemala (Volcan de Fuego) 

 in the Biologia Centralis Americana, I would be inclined to consider it as representing 

 a paler arid region (table-land) form. According to Salvin and Godman's descrip- 

 tion the female from Guatemala differs from the male in having the pileum tinged 

 with ochraceous, stripe on sides of head fuscous-black, chestnut of chest paler, and 

 the abdomen washed with ochraceous. 



10384— VOL 3—03 15 



