bangs: birds from the cayman islands. 319 



Some years ago Ridgway separated the Cayman Brae form based on 

 specimens collected there by Maynard. Some of Maynard's skins 

 of this bird are in the M. C. Z. so discolored by his chemical preserva- 

 tive as to be practically unidentifiable, and I am afraid even Ridgway 

 was deceived by them. Specimens in the present collection from 

 Cayman Brae are absolutely identical in color as well as in size with 

 those from Grand Cayman. In adult males from Grand Cayman 

 the wing runs 49-51.5; in adult males from Cayman Brae the wing 

 runs 48-51, the tips of the primaries are slightly more worn down in the 

 Cayman Brae skins. Birds from the Caymans are as a whole like 

 Jamaican specimens, and are slightly different from the average of 

 Cuban examples. 



We have now in the M. C. Z. upwards of 150 skins of T. olivacea 

 from the Greater Antilles, and after a very critical study of these 

 specimens, I think the species might by very close splitting be sub- 

 divided. Individual variation, however, is so great and the characters 

 that separate birds from the various islands so subtle that the wisdom 

 of so doing is very questionable. If subdivided, the forms of the 

 Greater Antilles would stand, probably, as follows: — 



Tiaris olivacea olivacea (Linne). 

 Haiti and Santo Domingo. 



Slightly browner olive-green above and on flanks; yellow of throat 

 often very pale (the color of the tlu-oat-patch is, however, subject to 

 much individual variation in all the forms). 



Tiaris olivacea lepicla (Linne). 



Cuba and Isle of Pines. 



Inclined to be darker and duller, than are the other forms, the upper 

 parts often dull dusky olive-green; the flanks darker and encroaching 

 more on belly; belly seldom yellowish. 



Tiaris olivacea adoxa (Gosse). 



Jamaica and the Caymans. 



Usually paler and more grayish olive-green above and on flanks; 

 belly paler and often washed with pale yellowish. 



I have no doubt that the subject of Gosse's plate was a young indi- 



