494 COEVID^. 



Azurea ; dorso et interscapulio obsourioribus ; loris nigricante-eseruleis ; regione parotica quam pileus obscurior • 

 subtas griseus ; ventre imo et crisso albicantibus ; tibiis griseis ; rostro nigro nonnunquam flavo variegate ; 

 pedibus nigris. Long, tota 12-5, alee 7-0, caudae rect. med. 6-5, rect. lat. 5-6, rostri a riotu 1-4, tarsi 1-6, 

 (Descr. exempl. ex Jalapa, Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 



Hob. Mexico {Beppe), south side of the Eio Grande, Monterey {Couch ^^), Eeal del 

 Monte (Bullock), Guanajuato (Dug^s), near the city of Mexico {le Strange), plateau 

 and alpine region of Vera Cruz (Sumichrast ^ ^^), Jalapa (SallS, de Oca '^). 



Some doubts hang around Bonaparte's name Gtarrulus uUramarinus, and neither the 

 authors of the ' History of North American Birds ' nor Mr. Sharpe give a very satisfactory 

 account of it, and none of them seem to have examined a specimen exactly answering to 

 Bonaparte's description. Neither have we ; but we altogether doubt the existence of 

 two distinct species of this form being found in Mexico proper, and we think it more 

 than probable that the squareness of the tail of Bonaparte's type was due to the feathers 

 being in a state of moult, or to the absence of the outer pair. At the same time we 

 notice some variation in the graduation of the tail in the specimens before us ; in one 

 from Jalapa the difference in the length between the outermost and the middle feathers 

 is nearly an inch. In Swainson's type of A. sordida it is a little more than three- 

 quarters of an inch, whilst in one of Salle's examples from Southern Mexico it is only 

 half an inch. It is thus evident that the graduation of the tail is not a definite specific 

 character. Thus the difi'erences said to exist between A. ultramarina and A. sordida 

 break down, and A. ultramarina remains as the oldest title of the species, having been 

 bestowed upon it by Bonaparte in 1825, Swainson's name A. sordida and Wagler's 

 A. sieheri, both based upon Bullock's specimens, dating from 1827. 



Two forms of this bird have been separated by North-American writers, namely 

 A. coucM from the Rio Grande valley, and A. arizonce from Arizona ; the latter of these 

 seems to be the most distinct, but it has not yet been noticed within our boundary. 

 A. couchi seems to differ chiefly in size and in having the dorsal region rather greyer. 

 It occurs near Monterey and in Chihuahua and at Parras. In Southern Mexico 

 A. ultramarina has a wide range throughout the plateau and alpine region, and it 

 has been observed by most collectors who have worked in the upland country. Sumi- 

 chrast places its range in altitude between 5000 and 11,000 feet above the level of 

 the sea. 



3. Unicolor, corpore suhtus cum gula dorso concoloribus, 

 3. Aphelocoma unicolor. 



Cyanocorase unicolor, DuBus, Bull. Ac. Brux. xiv. pt. 3, p. 103'; Esq. Om. t. 17° j Scl. P. Z. S. 



1857, p. 204' ; 1859, p. 365 * ; Schl. Mus. P.-B. i. Coraces, p. 49 \ 

 Cyanocitta unicolor, Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 378°; Scl. P. Z. S. 1864, p. 175''; Salv. Ibis, 1866, 



p. 194 ^ 



