Page:Birds of North and Middle America partV Ridgway.djvu/216

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188
BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM.

Range. — Southeastern Mexico to southeastern Brazil. (Many species.[1])

KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF SYNALLAXIS.

a. Pileum partly rufous, or else chest rufous. (Adults.)

b. Pileum dull brown; chest cinnamon-rufous or chestnut-ruious. (Southeastern Mexico to Honduras)

Synallaxis erythrothorax, adults (p. 189).

bb. Pileum partly cinnamon-rufous or rufous-chestnut; chest grayish or white.
c. Greater wing-coverts and basal portion of primaries cinnamon-rufous or chestnut-rufous; chest slate-gray to blackish slate. (Synallaxis pudica.)
d. Paler, the back, etc., olive-brown, tail brown, chest dull slate color or slate-gray. (Eastern Panamá to western Ecuadór.)

Synallaxis pudica pudica (p. 191).

dd. Darker, the back, etc., dark sooty brown, tail blackish brown, chest dark slate to blackish slate. (Western Panamá to southern Honduras.)

Synallaxis pudica nigrifumosa, adult (p. 192).

cc. Greater wing-coverts and basal portion of primaries light brown or broccoli brown; chest light gray to white. (Synallaxis albescens.)
d. Chest distinctly gray; brown of back, etc., darker.
e. Larger (wing averaging 54 or more in male, more than 53 in female; tail averaging more than 69 in male, more than 66 in female).
f. Slightly paler and smaller (wing averaging 54 in male, 55 in female; tail 69.7 in male, 73.5 in female). (Margarita Island, Venezuela.)

Synallaxis albescens nesiotis (extralimital).[2]

ff. Slightly darker and larger (wing averaging 56 in male, 54.7 in female; tail averaging 73 in male, 70.4 in female). (Colombia to Cayenne and Amazon Valley.)

Synallaxis albescens albigularis (extralimital).[3]

ee. Smaller (wing averaging 52.2 in male, 49.9 in female; tail averaging 65.8 in male, 62.9 in female). (Southwestern Costa Rica and western Panamá)

Synallaxis albescens latitabunda (p. 194).


  1. In Sharpe's Hand-List of the Genera and Species of Birds, Vol. III, pp. 53-58 (1901), forty-nine species are referred to this genus. Of these I have examined about one-half, but the above generic diagnosis and description are based on the three Central American species and S. ruficapilla (type of the genus) alone. I am nearly convinced that the group requires subdivision, but it should not be attempted with so poor a representation of the species, and I therefore leave the problem for others to work out.
  2. Synallaxis albescens nesiotis Clark (A. H.), Auk, xix, July, 1902, 264 (Margarita Island, Venezuela; coll. E. A. and 0. Bangs).
  3. Synallaxis albigularis Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1858, 63 (eastern Ecuador; coll. Verreaux). — Synallaxis albescens albigularis Berlepsch and Hartert, Novit. Zool., ix, April, 1902, 59 (Caicará, Altagracia, and Suapuré, Venezuela; descr. nest and eggs). — Synallaxis albescens (not of Temminck) Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xv, 1890, 43, part.
    I am not able to examine a specimen of S. albescens albescens during preparation of this key; indeed, the material available is, for all the forms, exceedingly scanty and unsatisfactory. The synonymy of S. a. albescens is as follows: Synallaxis albescens Temminck, Pl. Col., iii, livr. 38, Sept., 1823, pi. 227, fig. 2 (Brazil; coll. Mus. Pays-Bas); Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xv, 1890, 43, part. — Synallaxis albescens albescens Hellmayr, Novit. Zool., xv, 1908, 59 (crit.).