Todd-Carriker : Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 189 



most as in Venezuelan specimens of /. jacana. The under wing- 

 coverts are black, although Sharpe {Catalogue of the Birds in the 

 British Museum, XXIV, 1896, 84), describing specimens from Pan- 

 ama, says that these parts are deep maroon, only the marginal lower 

 coverts and lower primary-coverts being black. While the balance of 

 our series are easily referable to nigra, sever9,l of them show more or 

 less distinct traces of maroon on the scapulars. In short, a summary 

 of the evidence available goes to show that not only are the characters 

 of melanopygia most variable, but also that it occurs together with 

 typical nigra at many (probably all) places throughout the range of 

 the latter. The presumption is strong that it is merely a color-phase 

 of nigra, as suggested by Salvin in 1870. The case has many points 

 in common with that of Ixobrychus exilis and /. neoxenus. There is 

 also a possibility that J. nigra itself may be merely a black phase of 

 J . jacana, in which case the individuals showing maroon feathers on 

 the upper parts {"melanopygia") would be considered individual in- 

 termediates, such as occur occasionally in other forms having two 

 distinct color-phases. We are not inclined to adopt this view of the 

 case at present, however, largely on account of the restriction of /. 

 nigra to a definite geographic area, although admitting that this is not 

 an insuperable argument. 



A very common bird in the Tropical Zone, wherever there are fresh- 

 water marshes or sluggish streams choked with aquatic plants. 



Family COLUMBID^. Pigeons. 

 III. Oreopeleia linearis infusca (Bangs). 



Geotrygon linearis (not Columba linearis Prevost and Knip) Bangs, Proc. 



Biol. Sec. Washington, XII, 1898, 157 (Pueblo Viejo). 

 Geotrygon linearis infusca Bangs, Proc. New England Z06I. Club, I, 1900, 



108 (Chirua [type-locality]. La Concepcion, and Pueblo Viejo; orig. descr. ; 



type now in coll. Mus. Comp. Z06I. ; meas. ; crit.). — Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. 



Nat. Hist., XIII, 1900, 120, 128 (Valparaiso, El Libano, and San Lorenzo). 



— Hellmayr and von Seilern, Arch. f. Naturg., LXXVIII, 1912, 161, in 



text (crit.). 

 Geotrygon infusca Braboukne and Chubb, Birds S. Am., I, 1912, 21 (ref. 



orig. descr. [error]; range). 



Twenty specimens : El Libano, San Lorenzo, Las Vegas, Cincinnati, 

 Las Taguas, and Pueblo Viejo. 



