Todd-Carriker:. Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 307 



this species received from the Santa Marta region, but later concluded 

 that Sclater's description of the Bogota bird must have been a mis- 

 take. Upon the receipt of the present series the discrepancies between 

 Sclater's description (and plate) and the specimens themselves seemed 

 so marked that a skin was forwarded to Mr. Hellmayr, with the re- 

 quest that he compare it with typical examples and report the result. 

 He writes in reply : " The Santa Marta bird is a new form provided 

 that all males from that locality have the middle of the crown plain 

 black, without white streaks. Drymophila caudata striaticeps Chap- 

 man is simply D. c. caudata redescribed. Mr. Chapman was misled 

 by the original description and accompanying figures. Adult males 

 from Bogota (topotypical) and the Western Andes of Colombia 

 {striaticeps) (I have examined a series in the Paris Museum) are per- 

 fectly identical inter se and have the top of the head regularly streaked 

 with white. In breeding time the white edges sometimes become 

 nearly obsolete. It must have been such a specimen that served as 

 type of Sclater's description. Birds from western Ecuador agree in 

 every respect with the Colombian ones. 



" The Santa Marta bird is fully like typical D. caudata, but has the 

 middle of the pileum and nape uniform black. By this character it 

 forms the passage to D. caudata klagesi Hellmayr and Seilern from 

 northern Venezuela, which otherwise is, however, very different." 



In addition to the character of the head-markings, on which Mr. 

 Hellmayr lays so much stress; attention should be called to the fact 

 that the tail also is different, being olivaceous, becoming rufescent 

 towards the base, instead of deep neutral gray, with the subterminal 

 black band much broader, as in typical caudata. It is with much 

 pleasure that we name this new form in honor of Mr. Hellmayr, in 

 recognition of his work on this genus. 



A rare bird on the slopes of the San Lorenzo, because the conditions 

 are not so suitable there, but found between 3,000 and 5,000 feet. In 

 the Sierra Nevada it is much more numerous, occurring as low down 

 as 2,000 feet. It avoids the deep forest, but favors rank second-growth, 

 and especially exposed ridges overgrown with brake fern, which oc- 

 curs in dense clusters from three to six feet high. It is an active, 

 noisy bird, always revealing its presence by a constant chirping. In- 

 variably it is met with in pairs or families, and often in company with 

 Synallaxis fuscorufa. 



