496 COEVIDiE. 



the nearly total absence of any mention of it in other parts of the country, that it is^ 

 restricted to very narrow limits, probably not extending beyond the slopes of the great 

 volcanos. 



b. Plumce nasales a plumis frontis hand distinctce, hm plus minusve projectce aut erectoe. 



CYANOLYCA. 



Cyanolyca, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. i. p. 223 (1850) . 

 Xanthura, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 128 (partim). 



In Mr. Sharpe's arrangement of the eight species we include under this generic 

 name, four are placed in Xanthura and the rest in Cyanocorax ; but we cannot help 

 feeling that comparative measurements of tail, wings, &c., upon which Mr. Sharpe 

 relies, have led him to associate birds by no means nearly allied, judging by their 

 colours, and it seems to us that bis section b of the genus Xanthura had best be 

 separated and associated with his section e' of his genus Cyanocorax. This treatment 

 brings together a group of birds which are not structurally dissimilar, and which more 

 or less share the same colours in different combinations, and we have no such discordant 

 element as X. luxuosa, in which the colours depart entirely from the rest. 



The eight species we now include under this name fall naturally into several groups. 

 C. sanhlasiana, the type of the genus Oissolopha of Bonaparte, can readily be distin- 

 guished by its peculiar elongated frontal crest. C. heecheyi and C. yucatanica have 

 yellow legs, and the colour of the bill differs in the sexes, moreover the female of 

 C. yucatanica has white tips to the outer tail-feathers. The other species have na 

 abnormal characters ; but C. ornata has the frontal feathers more distinctly erect than 

 in C. melanocyanea. 



The type of the genus Cyanolyca of Cabanis is C. armillata from Colombia, a species 

 not represented in our region by any near ally. 



a. Crista frontalis tenuis, valde elongata, nigra ; venter omnino niger. 

 1. Cyanolyca sanblasiana. 



Geai de San Bias, Neboux, Rev. Zool. 1840, pp. 290, 323'. 



Pica sanblasiana, Lafr. Mag. Zool. 1843, Ois. t. 28 ^. 



Cissolopha sanblasiana, Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 380'; Lawr. Mem. Best. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 284*. 



Cyanocitta sanblasiana, Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1876, p. 269 '. 



Xanthura sanblasiana, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 132°. 



Cyarwcorase de San Bias, Prev. et Desmurs, Voy. ' Venus,' v. p. 200'. 



Supra azurea, uiopygio et Cauda saturatioribus ; alis magis viridescentibus ; capite toto cum collo et corpora 

 subtus nigerrimis ; tibiis et crisso indigoticis ; crista frontali elongata, nigra ; rostro nigro, pedibus corylinis. 

 Long, tota 12-0, alae 5-2, caudse 5-7, rostri a ricfcu 1-4, tarsi 1-5. (Descr. feminse ex Colima, Mexico. 

 Mus. nostr.) 



Eab. Mexico ^, San Bias, Acapulco {Neioux ^ ^), plains of Colima, Manzanilla Bay, Los 

 Trochos {Xantus *). 



