UEOGALBA AMAZONUM. 



THE LAEQEE PAEADISE-JACAMAE. 

 PLATE I. Fig. 2. 



Urogalha amazonum, Scl. P. Z. S. 1855, p. 14. 



TIrogalba amazonum, Scl. Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 2, xvii. p. 71 (1856). 



Urogalha -paradisea^ Scl. P. Z. S. 1857, p. 262. 



Urogalha amazonum, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1867, p. 582. 



Urogalha amazonum, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 105 (1873). 



Obscure purpureo-viridisj alls et caudji extus et dorso inferiore seneo splendentibus ; pileo albicanti-fuscoj 

 fronte et supercilils dilutioribus ; guttiiris plaga magna triangularis subalaribus, remigum marginibus 

 internis et bypocbondriis albis ; mento fusco ; rostro et pedibus nigris : long, tota 13'Oj alse 3"8j 

 caudse 6'3j rostri a rictu 3" 7. Fem. mari similisj sed crassitie minore. 



Hub. in Amazonia superiore. 



Obs. Similis U. paradisece, sed crassitie majore et pileo albicanti-fusco distinguenda. 



It is often a very difficult question for the naturalist to decide whether a representative form is 

 sufficiently different to rank as a distinct species. Mere divergence in size, when other characters 

 are identical, is, I think, hardly enough to entitle such a form to specific rank ; but when variation 

 in structure or colour supervenes, it seems better to employ a different specific term. Such is 

 the case in the present instance. The Paradise-Jacamar of the Upper Amazons is not only much 

 larger than the ordinary form of Cayenne and Lower Amazonia, but has a well-marked fuscous 

 crown, which passes into whitish brown on the front and above the eyes. I have therefore 

 called it " Urogalha amazonum." The American naturalists who have lately adopted a trinomial 

 system of nomenclature would, no doubt, call it " Urogalha paradisea, subsp. amazonum" There 

 . are some advantages in their plan, which certainly has the merit of being more exact, and will 

 probably ultimately come into general use. But for the present, I think, we have quite enough 

 to do to reduce the well-marked species of birds into systematic order, leaving it to a future 

 generation to work out the subspecies and minor varieties. 



When I first described this species in 1855 in my ' Remarks on the Arrangement of the 

 Jacamars,' I believe I made a great error as regards its locality. I stated, mainly on the faith 

 of a specimen purchased of a dealer in Hamburg, that it was from Para and Lower Amazonia. 

 Thereupon Herr v. Pelzeln, in one of his early papers on the birds of Natterer*, pointed out that 

 that the examples of the Paradise-Jacamar obtained by that famous collector on the Madeira and 

 Rio Negro agreed fully with Guianan specimens, and suggested that Urogalha amazonum must 

 be reunited to U. paradisea. With this view, which was also adopted by Messrs. Cabanis and 



* Sitz. Ak. Wiss. Wien, xs. p. 304 (1S56). 



