100 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



approximating one of the other styles, I should not hesitate to charac- 

 terize as a distinct species. This style is " 8. brasilianus, subsp. jg. Scops 

 guatemalce" of Sharpe (I. c), to which probably as many as 90 per cent, 

 of the specimens brought from those countries may be referred. It hap- 

 pens, however, that while absolutely typical specimens of the u brasili- 

 anus v style do occur from both these countries, specimens of typical 

 " guatemalw" also occur in Brazil, thus annulling the importance of geo- 

 graphical considerations ; while, as a further proof of specific identity, 

 the number of specimens which cannot be referred to either one or the 

 other of these two forms, but which are in every respect intermediate, 

 is by no means small. 



The prominent features of this variety are, a confusedly-mottled, rather 

 than regularly- barred, lower plumage, and a darker upper surface, there 

 being little approach to that sharpness and clearness of all the mark- 

 ings which characcerize the other form; the bright orange-butf bases 

 of the feathers of the lower parts, so usual {but not constant) in typical 

 specimeus of the 44 brasiUanus" style, is also absent in all the specimens 

 I have seen. As in the latter variety, the individual variations in "gua- 

 temalo?" tend to great extremes, both as to the shades of coloration and 

 the pattern of the markings; the principal of these are the following: — 



Gray extreme (spec, iu Mus. Salvin & Godinan, Coban, Vera Paz, 

 Jan. — 44 O. S. 235_! "): — Prevailing color above pale brownish, very 

 coarsely mottled wi:h pale buff and grayish-white, and with larger and 

 very irregular spots of blackish, these nowhere assuming the form of 

 shaft-streaks, even ou the crown; sides of the forehead or 44 eyebrows" 

 appreciably, but not abruptly, paler (mottled whitish). Face, throat, 

 sides of neck, and jugulum dirty whitish, finely and quite regularly 

 undulated transversely with brownish, the dusky facial circle not dis- 

 tinct. Best of lower parts soiled white, the whole surface relieved by 

 very irregular, ragged, and confused zigzag lines of dusky brownish, the 

 feathers showing very irregular, but quite distinct, mesial, blackish 

 streaks, with which the transverse markings unite. 



The above description is of a specimen representing the extreme gray- 

 ish phase, so far as shown by the series before me; others, in Messrs. 

 ►Salvin and Godmau's collection, exhibit a gradual transition to the 

 rufous phase, scarcely two specimens being alike in the precise shade 

 of brown, while positively none agree in the details of pattern. Thus, 

 two males from Veragua ("Arce, li 101", and u Arce, 1800") have the 

 upper parts so nearly devoid of coarse mottlings as to appear of a nearly 

 uniform light u tuber- brown. On the other hand, a specimen from Vera 

 Paz ( 44 C S. 2348") has the general dusky coloring above relieved by 

 very conspicuous, large, and, in places, regularly-oblong, transverse 

 spots of pale fawn-color. In the latter specimen, the white on the outer 

 web of the scapulars is broken by transverse wide bars of mottled fawn 

 and dusky, while iu nearly all the others this white is unbroken, having 

 only the terminal blackish border common to nearly all the species of the 

 genus. 



