Genus Thamnophilus, Vieillot. 243 



fig. 2 (J). 38, fig. 2 ($). Th. casrulescens, Lafr. R. Z., 1853, 



p. 338. 



$ cinereus ; pileo summo et dorso medio nigris, hoc albo 

 mixto ; alis nigris albo limbatis ; cauda nigra, rectrice una 

 utrinque extima macula pogonii exterioris mediali et omnibus 

 macula apicali albis, 



$ pallide viridescenti-rufa, subtus valde dilutior, ventre al- 

 bicantiore ; pileo ferrugineo ; remigibus nigricantibus externe 

 brunneo limbatis ; rectricibus brunneis ; his et alarum tectri- 

 cibus et secondariis, sicut in mari, albo notatis. 



Long, tota 5*5, alse 2*7, caudse 2-1. 



Hab. Cayenne (Sc), British Guiana (Schomb.) ; North Bra- 

 zil, Para (M. B.) ; Bogota (Sc.) ? 



The Lanius ncevius of Gmelin is founded upon Latham's 

 " Spotted Shrike." The describer says of this, — " The tail 

 is black, all the feathers tipped with white, and on each of the 

 outer feathers is a spot of white on the outer web about the 

 middle of each feather." These characters and the habitat 

 clearly indicate the present bird, in contradistinction to the 

 South-east Brazilian T. ambiguus, which the Baron de La- 

 fresnaye, in a recent article in the Revue et Magazin de Zoolo- 

 gie has considered as the true " ncevius" His discovery of the 

 distinctness of that bird from the present is by no means no- 

 vel, the same having been clearly set forth in the Zoological 

 Journal for 1827 by Mr Swainson, and he has, besides, assigned 

 names to the two species that cannot be retained, the present 

 bird not being, as I believe, the ccerulescens of Vieillot, and 

 the T, ambiguus not identical, as I have before observed, with 

 the true ncevius of Gmelin. 



Besides my Cayenne examples, I have seen many North 

 Brazilian specimens which I refer to this species. They differ, 

 however, from the Cayenne birds, as well as from one another, 

 in the amount of white edgings on the secondaries, and spots 

 on the upper tail-coverts ; as also in the belly being darker 

 cinereous, and in some (which I consider younger birds) obso- 

 letely barred across, but agree always in the markings of the 

 tail. 



Nor do I venture at present to separate the Bogota variety 

 as a distinct species, though, in the specimens I have seen from 



