438 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



rufous 01' chestnut (except in the two species mentioned and M. inysta- 

 calis); lores white (except in M. mystac(dls); under part chiefly white 

 and gray (abdomen light cinnamon in If. mystacalis) ; sometimes with 

 a black spot in middle of chest. 



Range. — Highlands of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Peru. 



This genus embraces three distinct styles of coloration; one, includ- 

 ing live of the eight known species, characterized by having rufous or 

 chestnut on the occiput; the second, consisting of two species, having 

 no rufous or chestnut on the chiefly black head, the sides of the neck 

 and the edge of the wing being yellow; the third, represented by a 

 single species, possessing none of the above-mentioned characters, but 

 having the lores black and the abdomen light cinnamon, the two other 

 groups having both lores and abdomen white. 



The first group, embracing JZ Meneri., M. rnhi'lcatum^ M. iiarciiatum, 

 II. cahanisi, and 21. rufigenis^ exhibits, however, the extremes of 

 variation in form, M. rvhricatum (perhaps also M. Meneri, which I 

 have not seen), having verj' stout feet with strong claws (that of the 

 hallux about equal in length to its digit, and those of the lateral toes 

 reaching quite to the base of the middle claw), exactly as in the genus 

 Pipilo^ and the tail is neai'h' even. Of the other species, M. hiarciuotuhi 

 has the tail as long as the wing, the only other species agreeing with 

 it in this respect being M. mystacalis.^ The latter is unique in its black 

 lores and cinnamon colored abdomen, while M. leucotis and M. occipitalis 

 alone have yellow in their plumage and the throat black. All have 

 the black jugular spot except 3L hiarcuatum, 2L rufigenis, and If. 

 mystacalis. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF MELOZONE. 



a. Chin and throat white; head partly rufous; no yellow on head or neck, nor white 

 spot on auricular region; edge of wing white. 

 h. Chest with a central spot of black or dusky; sides of head white only on lores, 

 eyelids, and malar region (the two last sometimes rufous). 

 c. Auriculars olive or olive-grayish, like back. 



d. Forehead blackish; malar region and crown entirely rufous; no white orbital 



ring. ("Mexico.'') Melozone kieneri (p. 439) 



dd. Forehead and at least anterior portion of crown grayish olive, like back; 



anterior half of malar region and eyelids white. {Melozone rubricatum. ) 



e. Smaller, with smaller and relatively narrower bill and rather darker or 



duller coloration; adult female^ averaging, wing 73.15, tail 68.33, 



^Buarremon rufigenis Salvin, Novitates ZoologicEe, ii, no. 1, Feb. 1, 1895, 5, pi. 1, fig. 

 2 (Huamachuco, 10,400 feet, and Cajabamba, 11,000 feet, Peru; coll., Salvin and 

 Godman) . 



^Pipilo mystacalis Taozanowski, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1874, 521 (Junin, centr. 

 Peru; Warsaw JIus.). — Buarremon nationi Sciater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1881, 

 485, pi. 46 (near Lima, Peru, altitude 10,000-14,000 feet; coll. P. L. Sciater).— Pyr- 

 gisoma nationi Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xii, 1888, 736. 



^Not having been able to examine adult males of this form I am obliged to give 

 measurements of the female. 



