510 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



comparison. Although resembling Catamenia analis, the accepted type 

 of the genus, in the general shape of the bill, they differ conspicuously 

 in having long, narrow, acute rectrices, instead of the broad, blunt 

 ones characteristic of analis, while the wing, too, is differently pro- 

 portioned, the ninth (outermost) primary being shorter than the third, 

 instead of longer. For this group a new genus, Idiospiza, has re- 

 cently been proposed by the present writer (Proceedings Biological 

 Society of Washington, XXX, 1917, 127). 



This bird was found in the months of June and July on the open 

 summit of the Cerro Quemado of San Lorenzo, between 7,500 and 

 8,300 feet, where the mountain was overgrown with large bromelias, 

 grasses, and a few bushes and small shrubs. It was very scarce and 

 difficult to secure, flushing from the thick cover only to fly far out of 

 gunshot before again alighting. The writer expected to find it more 

 common in the Sierra Nevada proper, but to his surprise took but a 

 single young bird on the Cerro de Caracas at about 11,000 feet, where 

 it was met with in company with a small flock of Phrygilus unicolor 

 nivarius on April 2, 1914. 



491. Catamenia alpica Bangs. (Plate VII.) 



Catamenia sp. Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XIII, 1899, 102 (Paramo 

 de Chiruqua).— Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, 1900, 164 (Bangs' 

 reference) . 



Catamenia alpica Bangs, Proc. New England Z06I. Club, III, 1902, 89 (Paramo 

 de Chiruqua; orig. descr. ; type now in Mus. Comp. Zool. ; crit.). — Allen, 

 Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXI, 1905, 278 (ref. orig. descr.; syn.). — 

 Sharpe, Hand-List Birds, V, 1909, 214 (ref. orig. descr.; range). — Bra- 

 bourne and Chubb, Birds S. Am., I, 1912, 368 (ref. orig. descr.; range). 



Four specimens : Taquina, Macotama, and Paramo de Chiruqua. 



Description. — Adult male: above dull slate gray, more or less 

 washed with clay-color, especially on the lower back, and streaked 

 with dusky, narrowly on the pileum, more broadly on the lower back, 

 but leaving the rump and upper tail-coverts plain; wing-coverts cen- 

 trally black, broadly margined with slate gray, which in the greater 

 coverts is sometimes tinged with dull cinnamon buff; primaries dusky 

 black, with narrow external margins of slate gray; secondaries with 

 broader external edgings of cinnamon buff ; inner margins of remiges 

 white for most of their length; under wing-coverts dull gray; tail 

 black, the rectrices externally edged with grayish white, and all except 



