On some birds from southern Mexico

In the years 1962/64 our museum purchased from Mr. Otto Epping, now of Pittsburgh, U.S.A., a collection of 700 bird-specimens from southern Mexico (mainly from Vera Cruz and Oaxaca, a few specimens from Puebla). As our museum was poorly provided with material from Mexico, this was a very welcome addition to our collections. Mexico being now ornithologically well-known, there would be little point in giving a complete list of the species received, but there are a few rare and little-known species included and some others are of faunistic interest as they extend the ranges as hitherto known of the species or subspecies they belong to. In the present paper, the species which for the reasons given above appear to be of interest are listed, and when the occasion demands discussed. The localities where Mr. Epping collected are indicated on the accompanying map (fig. 1). Measurements are in millimetres. Of the numbers, the one before the stripe is the collectors number, the one behind the stripe is the number under which the specimen is registered in our collection. My work on this collection was much facilitated by the "Distributional Check-List of the Birds of Mexico" (see references under Friedmann and Miller); when in the text reference is made to "the Check-List", this work is meant. Podiceps nigricollis californicus Heermann (5, Temascal, Oaxaca, 19.XII.1962, gonads 5X3 (442/34429). Wing 132, entire culmen 28^, exposed culmen 22^4; light moult of body feathers on the back; stomach empty. Apparently not previously recorded from Oaxaca, though known from Vera Cruz. Podilymbus podiceps podiceps (Linnaeus)