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Show 1870.] DR. O. FINSCH ON THE BIRDS OF TRINIDAD. 567 the description of C. subflavescens, which seems not to be specifically separable. Of C. wiedii I have lately received specimens from Ceara, in Northern Brazil. Long. al. caud. rostr. tars. 2'' gm 2" 0'" 7P" 10'" 2 9 1 11 7-f 10 2 8 2 1 7 10 (wiedi, Brazil.) 43. THAMNOPHILUS MAJOR, Vieill.; Scl. P. Z, S. 1858, pi 209 ; ej. Cat. p. 172; Taylor, I. c. p. 85. Thamnophilus stagurus, Leot. p. 266. Thamnophilus borbee, Pelz. Orn. Bias. ii. p. 140. A n old bird. This and two specimens from Guiana agree rather with the characters noticed to be differential hy Von Pelzeln in T. borbee than with the true T. major, Vieill., of Paraguay. But having before m e a series of specimens from Brazil and Paraguay, I a m not able to distinguish the two species exactly. It is true that specimens from the northern parts (Guiana) have apparently less white bars on the tail, which is shorter, but these characters are variable and not constant. The Paraguay one has the two outer tail-feathers, except the white apical margin, with five broad white marginal patches, which on the outermost runs on both webs, nearly forming cross bands ; the primaries have a well-defined white margin on the outer web ; on the upper wing-coverts are two white cross bands, besides a third formed by the white outer margins of the tectrices of tbe secondaries. The Brazilian bird is alike with respect to the markings of the tail-feathers; but the white margins on the primaries are much less defined, and nearly all the tectrices are tipped with white (as in Spix's figure, t. 32. f. 1). It is the same in an old Guiana specimen (Demerara); but this one wants the white margins on the primaries almost entirely, and the white markings on the tail-feathers are narrower and on the outermost feather do not run on both webs. The Trinidad bird agrees with the latter; but it has the two white cross bands on the tectrices and the white margins on the primaries as strongly marked as the Paraguay one. In a somewhat younger specimen from Guiana the white tips on the tectrices are almost entirely absent, as well as the white margins on the primaries, and the two outer tail-feathers have seven white spots on the inner web. Two specimens from Ceara, in North Brazil, just received, agree with the Paraguay one, but the white on the tail-feathers is more defined and extended, forming on the two outermost regular bars as broad as the black between, the fourth and fifth have six white marginal spots, and the two innermost, instead of being uniform as in the Paraguay and Guiana birds, have five narrow white marginal spots on both webs, besides a white apical spot. |