504 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



(one nest is almost wholly composed of the latter), and lined with finer 

 plant stems, sometimes with wire grass. The nests vary greatly in 

 size and materials; one has a part of a letter or other manuscript, in 

 Spanish, placed among the leaves forming the outer wall of the nest. 

 . . . The eggs [two in number] are pale blue, with fine lines, like 

 pen-scratches, of black, mostly confined to the larger end." They were 

 laid in April and May. 



484. Saltator orenocensis rufescens Todd. 

 Fifteen specimens: Rio Hacha. 



.This well-marked race was described by the writer a few years ago 

 from three specimens collected at Tocuyo, in the State of Lara, Vene- 

 zuela. With these the Rio Hacha birds agree, allowing for the fact 

 that the latter are very mu^ more worn, having been collected con- 

 siderably later in the season (May 2-7), and are consequently not so 

 richly colored. They have the same large bill, dark line on the sides 

 of the pileum, and general deep coloration. Bonaparte may not have 

 been in error after all in ascribing this species to Colombia, as inti- 

 mated by the writer in describing the present form. It was found 

 only at Rio Hacha, in the thorny scrub characteristic of the Goajira 

 Peninsula, and is one of the species peculiar to the Arid Tropical Zone, 

 which invades this region from west-central Venezuela. 



485. Richmondena phoenicea (Bonaparte). 



Cardinalis granadensis Lafresnaye, Rev. Z06I., X, 1847, 74 (Rio Hacha; orig. 

 descr. ; type now in coll. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia). — Giebel, Thes. 

 Orn., I, 1872, 578 (ref. orig. descr.; syn.). — Brabourne and Chubb, Birds 

 S. Am., I, 1912, 370 (ref. orig. descr.; range). 



Cardinalis phcenicurus [sic] granadensis Stone, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil- 

 adelphia, 1899, 51 (crit. on type). 



Twenty-seven specimens : Rio Hacha. 



This species is the first to figure in the ornithological literature of 

 the region under consideration, having been described by Lafresnaye 

 in 1847 from a specimen collected at Rio Hacha, his type, which is 

 still in a good state of preservation, having been examined in this 

 connection, and found to agree minutely with the topotypical material 

 collected in May, 1914, by the junior aiithor. Lafresnaye's name was 

 early relegated to the synonymy of Cardinalis phceniceus by Bona- 

 parte {Conspectus Aviiim, I, 1850, 501), and appears to have been 



