MAR. 1896. ORNITHOLOGY OF SAN DOMINGO CHERRIE. 15 



my collecting earlier than usual. The result was that when I picked 

 up my specimen I recognized I had Calyptophilus. I had seen and 

 heard the bird every morning prior to that time, and three were taken 

 on that date, but none were seen afterward. The song from Calypto- 

 philus was the first sound to herald the approach of day (the mock- 

 ing bird did not begin his song for half or three-quarters of an hour 

 later), but once the sun was fairly up that song was hushed until 

 another day. 



In none of the three specimens is there any sign of a yellow spot 

 in the center or on the sides of the breast. 



26. Pyrrhulagra violacea (Linn.} CHICHIGUA; SIGUA NEGRA; 

 SIGUA PRIETA. Tolerably common at San Domingo City, Catare 

 and Aguacate, but not noted at the other localities visited. Seventy- 

 five specimens were taken, forty-seven of these were males, twenty- 

 seven were females and one in which the sex was not determined. 



Referring to the females of this species, Professor Cory remarks 

 (Auk, Vol. VIII, 1891, p. 296), that they assume "a black plumage 

 similar to the males." And later, Mr. W. E. D. Scott in his 

 " Observations on the Birds of Jamaica " (Auk, Vol. X, 1893, p. 180), 

 says, "In a large series before me there are many females quite as 

 brightly colored as the more intense males, and indistinguishable 

 from that sex in its highest plumage by any external features of color 

 or appearance." With both of these statements I concur in the main, 

 but in my series there are thirty-two males and nine females in the 

 black dress. I do not think the brighest colored female compares on 

 the back with the least richly glossy back among the males. Neither 

 does the chestnut of the throat seem so extended in the females. 

 However, these are only very minor differences, and the birds in the 

 field are indistinguishable. 



I have ten males and twelve females in mixed plumage, varying 

 from birds in an almost completely black dress to others having only 

 a few scattering black feathers about the head. There are five males 

 and six females not showing any black in plumage. Some of these 

 have a russet throat patch pretty well developed. In one of the 

 males in mixed plumage, the chestnut feathers of the throat are 

 all black tipped. The throat and under tail coverts in both males 

 and females in the black dress are a bright chestnut. Birds in mixed 

 dress usually have the throat a trifle paler, approaching nearer to a 

 russet, but becomes more chestnut and brighter in proportion as the 

 black extends through the plumage. The color of both the throat 

 (if the patch is yet at all developed) and the under tail coverts in 

 specimens without any black in the plumage is pale russet. 



