CTANOLTCA. 497 



This Jay appears to be extremely local, and its range restricted to Western Mexico 

 from San Bias to Acapulco, in both of which places specimens were obtained by the 

 officers of the French exploring frigate the ' Venus.' The only examples we have seen 

 to which a precise locality was attached are those obtained by Xantus in the State of 

 Colima, one of which was kindly given us by the authorities of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. The figure of this bird in the ' Magasin de Zoologie ' represents the bill yellow ; 

 but perhaps this is a variable rather than a sexual character, as in our example, marked 

 a female, the bill is black ; the sex of the latter, however, may have been wrongly 

 determined. In the allied species, C. heecheyi and C. yucatanica, the biU in the male is 

 black, in the female yellow. 



/3. Pedes Jlavi, rostrum in mart nigrum, in femina Jlavttm ; venter omnino niger. 

 2. Cyanolyca beecheyi. 



Pica beecheyi, Vig. Zool. Joum. iv. p. 353^; Zool. Beecliey's Voy., Birds, p. 22, t. 6 ^ 



Cyanocorax beecheyi, Finsch, Abh. nat. Ver. zu Bremen, i. p. 333 '. 



Cyanocitta beecheyi, Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 283'; Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1876, p. 270'. 



Xanthura beecheyi, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 133 \ 



Cyanocitta crassirostris, Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 378'. 



Cyanocorax geoffroyi, Bp. Compt. Rend. xxxi. p. 564 ^ 



Lsete purpurea ; alis et cauda saturatioribus ; capite toto cum eoUo et corpore subtus nigerrimis ; rostro nigro, 

 pedibus pallide corylinis. Long, tota 16-0, alse 6-8, caudae 7-7, rostri a rictu 1-8, tarsi 2-0. (Descr. maris 

 ex Mazatlau, Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 



$ mari similis, sed rostro flavo distinguenda. 



Ea^. Mexico, Mazatlan {Grayson^ S Bischoff\ Forrer), Tres Marias Is. {Xantus % San 

 Bias [Mus. Paris ^). 

 Grayson, who was well acquainted with this bird, says that it is much more abundant 

 in the State of Sinaloa than further south ; he usually met with it among the low 

 scrubby forests of the poorer lands of that State, to which it seems more partial than to 

 the rank woods found in some parts of the country. Its food consists of grubs, beetles, 

 and various kinds of insects, also many kinds of fruit ; it is likewise very fond of meat 

 and corn when to be had. The iris of the male, he says, is yellow, while that of the 



female is grey. 



The types described by Vigors were obtained during Beechey's voyage, and figured in 

 the volume describing the expedition ; but these specimens seem to have been lost, as 

 they are not extant in the British Museum. It was subsequently obtained by the 

 officers of the French frigate ' Venus,' who visited this portion of the Mexican coast ; 

 one of these examples, from Mazatlan, Bonaparte described under the name of Cyano- 

 corax qeoffroyi, the type so marked being now in the Paris Museum. This species also 

 occurs on the Tres Marias Islands, where Xantus found it, but where neither Grayson 

 nor Forrer met with it. 



BIOL. CBNTK.-AMEK., Aves, Vol. I., April 1887. 63 



