Vol. 54, pp. 133-136 September 30, 1941 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WAS '^m^ A NEW SUBSPECIES OF ARREMON SCHLEGELI. BY JOHN T. ZIMMER. In a collection of birds from Colombia recently sent to me for examination by Hermano Niceforo Maria of the Instituto de La Salle, Bogota, is an excellent new form of Arremon schlegeli which is described herewith. I am grateful to Dr. G. C. A. Junge of the Royal Museum of Natural History at Leiden for his assistance in solving a prob- lem of identity connected with the present study. Names of colors are capitalized when direct comparison has been made with Ridgwaj' 's " Color Standards and Color Nomen- clature. " Arremon schlegeli canidorsum, new subspecies. Type. — From San Gil, south of Bucaramanga, eastern Colombia. No. 325,733, American Museum of Natural History. Adult male collected in June, 1939, by Brother Niceforo Maria. Diagnosia. — Differs fiom A. s. schlegeli as exemplified by specimens from Santa Marta, Colombia, by having the back dark gray, not yellow; hind neck grayer, less whitish; upper wing-coverts darker and duller yellow; bill with whole upper half of maxilla blackish, from base to tip; rest of bill lemon yellow without any reddish tinge. Range. — At present known only from the type locality. Description of type. — Chin and entire sides and top of the head silky black extending also laterally in a broad area on the sides of the upper brea.st; hind neck Dark Gull Gray with black tips on the feathers, but somewhat paler laterally where the area adjoins the sides of the breast; back near dark Neutral Gray with u slight tinge of Olive Ciray, es])ecially on the rump and ujjper tail-coverts. Under parts (below the black chin) medially whitish, faintly tinged with gray on the sides of the lower breast and approaching Mouse Giay on the fianks. Remigos lilackish witii outer edges Slate Gray; primary-coverts slaty; greater upper wing-coverts with outer margins broadly Orange-Citrine; median and lesser series with tips broadly Orange-Citrine X Aniline Yellow; bend of wing Aniline Yellow X 20— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wa9H., Vol. 54, 1941. (133) 134 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. Light Cadmium; under wing-coverts mostly grayish with those at bases of secondaries more whitish, all with some yellowish tinge; inner margins of remiges inconspicuously whitish. Tail blackish with outer margins and most of median pair of feathers slaty. Bill (in dried skin) greenish yellow with whole culmen broadly blackish. Feet dull brownish. Wing, 77 mm.; tail, 66; exposed culmen, 14; culmen from base, 18; tarsus, 25. Remarks.— Female like the male in pattern and general coloration but with back tinged with Dark Olive Gray; throat, breast, and sides of belly Light Buff; flanks browner; under tail-coverts pale buff; chin black as in the male; wings patterned as in the male but the edges of the remiges duller blue and the yellow shoulder-patch slightly darker and duller. The single female examined shows traces of a gray stripe over the auriculars and one down the middle of the occiput, both indistinct. Wing, 66.25; tail, 56; culmen from base, 17; tarsus, 23. A young bird, without determined sex, has the upper parts dull Buffy Citrine with some of the black feathering of the head appearing in place; chin black; most of under parts broadly, but not sharply, striped with brownish gray; ground color of throat and belly buffy whitish, of sides brownish buff; under tail-coverts pale buff, unstriped; flanks dull brownish, with dark stripes not conspicuous; wings as in adults but the yellow shoulder-patch much duller. Two adult male paratypes are like the type in color but are smaller; wing, 73.5, 69.5; tail, 64, 58; culmen from base, 17, 17.5; tarsus, 23.5, 22.5. Arremon schlegeli was named by Bonaparte in 1850 (Consp. Gen. Av., I, p. 488) from "Am. m.," from a bird in the Leiden Museum. He described it as having, among other characters, a completely yellow bill and a fuscous gray back. When the specimens from San Gil came to hand, the suspicion promptly arose that they were the true schlegeli and that the yellow-backed form, to which the name had been applied for ninety years, had been wrongly identified. Every author who discussed the species after Bonaparte insisted on the yellow back but I have been unable to find any evidence that the type was examined or the discrepancies in Bonaparte's description noted. Dr. Junge, of the Leiden Museum, has been kind enough to examine the type for me and reports that Bonaparte's description is at fault and that the type, a male, has a blackish spot at the base of the cuhnen and a yellowish green back. This effectively disposes of the doubt as to the proper application of the name and assures the novelty of the birds from San Gil. Berlepsch (1912, Verh. V Int. Orn.-Kongr. Berlin, p. 1107) proposed to restrict the type locality of schlegeli to Santa Marta, Colombia. Hellmayr (1938, Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Publ., Zool. Ser., XIII, Pt. 11, p. 428) proposed to change this restriction to Caracas, Venezuela. Authors have agreed that there is no distinction between the birds of this species from the two localities. Dr. Junge writes me, however, that the label on the type speci- men gives "Colombie" from data written on the stand by Temminck. Berlepsch's restriction to Santa Marta is, therefore, to be followed. Zimmer — A New Subspecies of Arremon Schlegeli. 135 Specimens Examined. A. s. schlegeli.— Colombia: Santa Marta, Valparaiso, 1 cf, 1 9, 2 (?); Bonda, 1 c?; Onaca, 1 cf, 1 (?); Minca, 3 cf, 3 9, 1 (?); Santa Marta, 1 d^; N. Antioquia, 1 (?). A. s. canidorsum. — Colombia: San Gil, 1 d^ (type), 2 tf^', 1 9 ', 1 (?)'. 1 Specimens in Instituto de La Salle, Bogotd, Colombia.