320 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXXVI, 



After comparison with an essentially topotypical series from Santa 

 Marta, I refer to this form our specimens from the Magdalena Valley and 

 western slope of the Eastern Andes as far south as Chicoral. These birds 

 have the ventral region darker, the rectrices are blacker, and a bird from 

 Puerto Berrio is deeper above than true columbiana. They thus show an 

 approach toward P. c. nigricrissa of western Colombia, which, however, is 

 darker above and has much more black on the ventral region. 



Puerto Berrio, 1; Chicoral, 2; Alto de la Paz (w. slope, E. Andes), 1; 

 Subia (w. slope, E. Andes), 2. 



(1484) Piaya cayana nigricrissa (Cab.). 



Pyrrhococcyx nigricrissa Cab., J. f. O., 1862, p. 169 (Babahoyo or Esmeraldas, 

 w. Ecuador) ex Sclater P. Z. S., 1860, p. 285 (nomen nudum); Mus. Hein., IV, i, 1862, 

 p. 85. 



Piaya cayana Scl. & Salv., P. Z. S., 1879, p. 537 (Envigado). 



Piaya cayana caucae Stone, Proc. Acad. N. S. Phila., 1908, p. 499 (Rio Cauca, 

 Col.); CoBY, Field Mus. Pub., 183, 1915, p. 309 (Cauca Valley and possibly south to 

 Ecuador). 



Piaya cayana nigricrissa Coby, Field Mus. Pub., 183, 1915, p. 310 (part — 

 w. Ecuador only). 



Inhabits the Tropical and Subtropical Zones in western Ecuador and 

 western Colombia, extending in Colombia eastward to the eastern slope of 

 the Central Andes. Specimens from Antioquia east of the Western Andes 

 approach columbiana, but on the whole, are nearer nigricrissa. 



Much against my will I find myself compelled to adopt the name nigri- 

 crissa (Cab. ex Scl.) for this form rather than caucoe Stone. 



Sclater first used this name in connection with three specimens collected 

 by Eraser at Babahoyo, western Ecuador and, shortly after, applied it to a 

 specimen or specimens secured by the same collector at Esmeraldas, western 

 Ecuador (P. Z. S., 1862, p. 285 and p. 297). In neither case, however, did 

 he publish a description and the name nigricrissa up to this point, is a nomen 

 nudum. 



In 1862, however, Cabanis, having before him " ein Eraser' sches original- 

 exemplar von Equador," noted its close relation to the Costa Rican bird but 

 said that, as its name indicated, the form was distinguished by its black 

 crissum, a statement which, in view of the definiteness of the locality given, 

 and the character of the form concerned may, I think, be accepted as a suf- 

 ficiently adequate description of the race; and, on this assumption, I give 

 western Ecuador as the type-locality. Should this view not be considered 

 tenable the name could date from its publication later in the same year 



