[84] Contopus caribæus (D’Orb.) Muscipeta caribæa, D’Orb. (R. de la Sagra), Hist. Cuba, 1839, 77.
[85] Contopus caribæus, var. hispaniolensis, Bryant. Tyrannula caribæa, var. hispaniolensis, Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. XI, 1866, 91.
[86] Contopus caribæus, var. pallidus (Gosse). Myiobius pallidus, Gosse, Birds Jam. 166. Blacicus pallidus, Scl. P. Z. S. 1861, 77. Contopus p. Scl. Catal. Am. B. 1862, 231.—March, Pr. Ph. A. N. Sc. 1863, 290.
[87] Contopus (caribæus var. ?) bahamensis, Bryant. Empidonax bahamensis, Bryant, List of Birds of the Bahamas, 1859, p. 7. Young with the colors more ashy above, and less yellowish beneath; the upper parts with feathers faintly tipped with paler, causing an obsolete transverse mottling; two distinct bands on wing of pale ochraceous.
Of the above, caribæus, hispaniolensis, and pallidus are clearly to be referred to one species; the C. bahamensis also has many characters in common with them, and no violence would be done by referring it, also, to the same type; it is, however, more modified from the standard than any of the others, though the modifications are not of importance.
[88] These measurements are not only those of United States and Mexican examples, but also of Middle American examples (“sordidulus,” Sclater, and “plebeius,” Cabanis), and of a series from Ecuador and New Granada (= “bogotensis,” Sclater). In comparing a quite large number of such Middle American and Equatorial specimens with the large series of Northern examples, we have been utterly unable to appreciate even the slightest difference between them.
The C. punensis (Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. IX, 1869, 237; Puna Island, Guayaquil) is founded upon an immature specimen, so the characters of the species cannot be given with exactness. The relationship appears very close to the C. caribæus, there being the same large, very depressed bill, with the long bristles reaching nearly to its tip, and the tail about as long as the wing; while the upper plumage has the light faint transverse mottling seen in the young caribæus, var. bahamensis, and the lining of the wing ochraceous. In colors, however, the two are very different, the young of punensis being ashy-green, instead of pure ash, on the back, the crown very much darker, instead of not appreciably so; the wing-bands are white instead of ochraceous, while the breast and sides are dull sulphur-yellowish, instead of ashy, without any yellow tinge. The measurements are as follows: Wing, 2.60; tail, 2.60; culmen, .72; tarsus, .56.
The C. ochraceus, Sclater & Salvin (P. Z. S. 1869, 419; Salv. Ibis, 1870, 115), of Costa Rica, we have not seen. From the description, however, it seems to be scarcely different from C. lugubris, and it is probably the same. The size (wing, 3.30) appears to be a little smaller, and the belly more deeply yellowish.
[89] Empidonax brunneus, Ridgway. A very distinct species, not needing comparison with any other.
[90] Empidonax axillaris, Ridgway.