b. Nasal tuft elongated, forming an anterior crest, the feathers reaching far beyond nostrils. Whole top of head pale heavy yellow, glossed behind with bluish.
3. Body beneath, and crissum, very bright gamboge-yellow. Hab. Colombia, Ecuador, Bogota, and Bolivia … var. incas.
Thus, starting with the green-bellied luxuosa of the Rio Grande, we come to the yellow-bellied guatemalensis; but intermediate localities show different proportions of the two colors. The nasal tufts in the first do not extend beyond the nasal fossæ; and the frontal yellowish is very narrow. In the second these tufts reach beyond the fossæ, and the frontal yellowish is more extended. In incas again the nasal tufts have reached their maximum, while the frontal yellowish extends over the whole cap, leaving only a trace of blue on the nape.
Xanthoura incas, var. luxuosa, Bonap.
GREEN JAY.
Garrulus luxuosus, Lesson, Rev. Zoöl. April, 1839, 100. Cyanocorax luxuosus, Du Bus, Esquisses Ornithologiques, IV, 1848, pl. xviii.—Cassin, Illust. I, 1853, I, pl. i. Xanthoura luxuosa, Bon. Consp. 1850, 380.—Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851, 224.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 589. Pica chloronota, Wagler, Isis, 1829, 750 (young male; name belongs to Corvus peruvianus, Gm.). Cyanocorax cyanicapillus, Cabanis, Fauna Peruana, 1844-46, 233 (note). Cyanocorax yncas, “Boddært,” Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. V, April, 1851, 115 (first added here to fauna of United States).
Sp. Char. Wings shorter than the tail, which is much graduated, the lateral feathers 1.25 inches shorter. Above green; beneath yellow, glossed continuously with green; inside of wings and outer four tail-feathers straw-yellow; rest of tail feathers green, glossed with blue. Sides of the head, and beneath from the bill to the forepart of the breast, velvet-black. Crown, nape, and a short maxillary stripe running up to the eye and involving the upper eyelid, brilliant blue; the nostril-feathers rather darker; the sides of the forehead whitish. Bill black; feet lead-color. Length, 11.00; wing, 4.75; tail, 5.40; tarsus, 1.65.
Hab. Valley of Rio Grande, of Texas, and southward.
As remarked above, the passage into the yellow-bellied guatemalensis is gradual as we proceed south; and the latter, and perhaps even the incas, can only be considered as fellow races of a common original species.
