Todd-Carriker : Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 411 



alhipectus venesuelanus is a very poor subspecies at best, scarcely 

 worthy of recognition. While thus so close to T. alhipectus alhipectus, 

 it is easily told from T. alhipectus bogotensis of the Bogota region of 

 Colombia, the latter being by comparison far more deeply rufescent, 

 both above and below. 



In Juvenal dress, represented by Nos. 9,372 (May 14) and 44,494 

 (January 20), the colors are much duller, the streaking on the sides 

 of the head indistinct, and there are faint indications of dusky streaks 

 on the throat. 



This species is confined in the Santa Marta region to the Rio Ran- 

 cheria-Rio Cesar Valley and to the coastal plain of the north shore, 

 where the heavy humid Tropical Zone forest descends to sea-level. 

 It frequents the tangled undergrowth along the shores of the lagoons, 

 old clearings, and similar situations. Like all of the family it is noisy 

 and active, climbing about from the ground to the tops of the vine- 

 covered trees, but not coming out into the open. It has the usual wren 

 song of clear liquid notes, rather weak in this case, and is more ad- 

 dicted to uttering its harsh tattling chirp than to singing. 



A nest received from Mr. Smith is marked Don Diego, May 8. It 

 is a bulky affair, loosely constructed of small twigs and tendrils, lined 

 with very fine grass-tops. It is built at the end of a horizontal branch 

 of a lime-tree, and surrounded almost completely by the leaves, so 

 that it must have been pretty well concealed. The eggs are three in 

 number, about 19 X I4 m™- ; they are white, spotted with brownish 

 and with lilac shell-markings, chiefly around the larger end. 



377. Thryophilus leucotis leucotis (Lafresnaye). 



i ?) Thryothorus alhipectus (not of Cabanis) Sclater, Proc. Z06I. Soc. Lon- 

 don, i860, 273 ("Santa Marta"). — Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, 1861, 20 

 ("Santa Marta"). — Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Z06I. Soc. London, 1864, 

 345 ("Santa Marta"). 



{ ?) Thryothorus leucotis Sclater, PrOiC. Z06I. Soc. London, 1870, 328, in 

 text ("Santa Marta"; crit.). . . 



■(?) Thryophilus alhipectus galbraithii (not Thryothorus galbraithii Lawrence! 

 Hell,m:ays, Nov. Z06I., XV, 1908, 16, in text (" Santa Marta," in range). 



Eleven specimens : Bonda, Fundacion, and Tucurinca. 



All of the above references pertain to a specimen from Verreaux 

 which came into Sclater's hands, and which may possibly have been 

 T. alhipectus venesuelanus instead. 



