1917.] Chapman, Distribution of Bird-life in Colombia. 565 



white along the shaft of the two outer feathers, one with outer feathers as in 

 croceus, a much smaller amount on the next pair, one with two outer feath- 

 ers with white quadrate patches on one side, the corresponding feathers on 

 the other side black; Quetame, tail wholly black; Buena Vista, two, tail 

 wholly black, one, small amount of white in outer pair, one, small amount 

 of white in one of second pair; Andalucia, one, wholly black; one, two outer 

 pairs as in croceus. In addition to the Colombian birds listed below we have 

 one from Gualea, Ecuador, in which the three outer pairs of rectrices have 

 as much white as in croceus. It thus appears that only five birds in our 

 series of thirty-five males have the tail with white as in croceus (they are 

 considerably paler below than Chiriqui specimens), seventeen have no white 

 on the tail and fourteen are more or less intermediate and of these thirteen 

 have the tail assymetrically marked with white. All the white-tailed 

 (= "croceus") specimens are from the Western Andes and western slope 

 of the Central Andes; all but one of the black-tailed specimens (= columbia- 

 nus) are from the Eastern Andes or country at their base, while intermediates 

 occur throughout practically the entire region represented by ovu" specimens. 

 It is evident that we have here a complicated case not to be accounted for by 

 geographic or individual variation, while the results of hybridization could 

 be rendered apparent along so long a "front" only by assuming that range 

 extension in these forms has been from east to west and vice versa. Thus a 

 black-tailed eastern form has longitudinally invaded the range of a white- 

 tailed western form, which in turn has entered the home of the black-tailed 

 form. Only this theory occurs to me as a possible explanation of this puz- 

 zling case, but more material is needed before we will be in a position to 

 settle satisfactorily the status of these birds. 



Caldas, 3; Miraflores, 4; San Antonio, 2; Cerro Munchique, 1; El 

 Eden, 3; Rio Toche, 1; Chicoral, 1; near San Agustin, 1; La Palma, 1; 

 La Candela, 3; below Andalucia (alt. 3000 ft.), 3; El Consuelo, above Honda 

 (alt. 3300 ft.), 2; Fusugasuga, 1; Bogota, 1; Quetame, 1; Buena Vista, 4; 

 La Holanda, 5; La Herrera, 2; El Carmen, 2; Pacho, 1; Subia, 1; Tena- 

 suca, 1; Puente Andalucia, 6. 



(3842) Sicalis flaveola {Linn.). 



Fringilla jlaveola Linn., Syst. Nat., I, 1766, p. 321 (Surinam). 

 Sycalis Columbiana Robinson, Flying Trip, 1895, p. 161 (Barranquilla). 

 Sycalis flaveola Allen, Bull. A. M. N. H., XIII, 1900, p. 165 (Honda; Cienaga; 

 Cacagualito; Santa Marta). 



Inhabits the arid Coastal Zone of northern Colombia. I have no topo- 

 types and no specimens of Sicalis columbiana, described from Puerto Cabello. 



