Distribution of all the candidate AGB sources (black dots) identified in Paper I. Overlayed are sources from our spectroscopic sample. Symbols have the same meaning as in Fig. 5. The circle (solid line) marks the position of the 4 kpc limit inferred in Paper I. The ellipse of Battinelli et al. (2006, dashed line) is shown and has a semi-major axis of 34′ at the assumed distance modulus assumed in Paper I, (m − M)₀ = 23.45 ± 0.05.