bangs: birds from the cayman islands. 307 



Z. zenaida. This is wholly due, I think, to wear and the loss of the 

 bloom or sheen characteristic of the fresh plumage. 



* Chaemepelia passerina insularis (Ridg.). 



Eleven specimens, all adult males. Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, 

 and Cayman Brae. April, May, and June. 



There is no difference in skins from the three islands. On comparing 

 this series with an enormous number of Cuban birds, I could find no 

 differences at all, in color, color of the bill, size, or anything else. I 

 therefore sent the series to W. E. C. Todd, as the latest authority on 

 this group of birds, and asked him for an opinion that I might quote 

 in print. He replied that he was now fully prepared to say that the 

 Cayman and Cuban forms are identical. Chaemepelia passerina 

 afiavida (Palmer and Riley) therefore becomes a synonym of P. p. 

 insularis (Ridg.). The Jamaican form, though very close still appears 

 to be recognizable. • 



t Leptotila jamaicensis collaris (Cory). 



Five specimens, both sexes, all adult. Grand Cayman, May and June. 



Brown considers this Dove to be the rarest of all the peculiar Grand 

 Cayman birds. The five specimens he took were the result of days 

 spent hunting especially for it in its favorite haunts. 



I can detect no differences whatever in color in comparing these 

 Grand Cayman skins with our twelve specimens of true L. jamaicensis 

 (Linne) from Jamaica. The Cayman examples appear to have less 

 white at the tips of the three outer rectrices. This may be partly, 

 perhaps wholly, due to their tail feathers being more worn down at 

 the ends. The Cayman specimens also average slightly smaller than 

 Jamaican ones, as the following measurements show, but the differ- 

 ence is so trifling that a larger amount of material might actually 

 tiu-n it the other way, and I doubt much if the form can be maintained. 



