XANTHUEA.— CYANOCOEAX. 503 



and we altogether fail to appreciate the differences sought to be made between Mexican 

 and Guatemalan examples of X. luxuosa ; the only point that seems necessary to refer 

 to as regards the variation of the species within our region is that birds from Northern 

 Yucatan have the under surface rather purer yellow than those from other parts of 

 Mexico and Guatemala ; in this respect they approach the Venezuelan form X. coBru- 

 leocephala, in which the green shade is wholly absent. 



Xanthura luxuosa is a well-known bird in the Eio Grande valley, occurring both on 

 the Texan and on the Mexican side of the river ; all collectors who have worked in this 

 district have noted its presence. Dr. Merrill and Mr. Sennett found it breeding about 

 Lomita and other places in Texas : the nest is described as built of twigs and rootlets, 

 but so thin that the eggs could be seen from beneath ; it is not easily found, for 

 it is always concealed in thickets or in the heavy undergrowths of dense woods. 

 The ground-colour of the eggs is usually drab, faintly tinged with green, distinctly 

 spotted, speckled, or streaked with brown markings, chiefly at the larger end ; occa- 

 sionally, however, the spots are indistinct and clouded. In Southern Mexico X. luxuosa 

 is a well-known bird on the eastern side of the cordillera ; in the State of Vera Cruz, 

 Sumichrast says, it is one of the most generally diffused species throughout the Depart- 

 ment in the hot and temperate regions, even as high as 6500 feet above the sea. Pease 

 found it in the State of Puebla ; but it seems absent from all the western slope of the 

 mountains and from the State of Oaxaca until we come to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, 

 where Sumichrast found it in numbers. In Northern Yucatan Mr. Gaumer says that 

 it is abundant near the city of Merida, and all towns and villages, being seldom seen 

 in the forests, though frequently along the roadsides ; it is a bird, though common, but 

 little known to the people of Yucatan, due probably to its resorting to those trees having, 

 green foliage like the colour of its plumage. In Guatemala it is a familiar bird in the 

 forest regions on both sides of the cordillera up to an elevation of about 3000 feet, and 

 it seems equally abundant in the lowlands lying to the northward of Coban as throughout 

 the whole country bordering the Pacific. Its habits are much like those of other Jays, 

 and it frequents the roadsides and the edges of clearings rather than the dense forests. 

 Southward of Guatemala it has been recorded only from Honduras, and it is a remark- 

 able fact that at present we have no record of any species of this form from any portion 

 of the southern section of our country ; it appears to be entirely absent from Costa 

 Rica and the State of Panama. Immediately we enter South America we find the true 

 X. incas occurs in the Cauca valley of Colombia, and in Venezuela the exceedingly 

 closely allied X. coeruleocapilla is found. 



