270 NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXIV. 1917. 



brown" through "Brussels brown" to "raw umber." "In most fully adult 

 individuals the whole back, rump and wings, except lesser coverts, are brown." 

 Size and proportions as in G. c. galeata. Wings, 169-178 mm. 



"North temperate Eastern and Central North America, south to Nicaragua, 

 and as a rare straggler to Costa Rica ; Bermudas ; Greater Antilles ; Northern 

 Lesser Antilles ; Bahamas, rare and local ; an isolated colony in California 

 and another at Cape San Lucas" (Bangs, I.e.). 



Specimens from the Galapagos Islands appear to be inseparable for the 

 present, but a larger series would probably show them to be a smaller sub- 

 species ! 



Bangs {I.e., p. 98) separated, from comparison of two specimens, a race from 

 S. Lucia, Lesser Antilles, a.s — 



Oallinula chloropus cerceris. 



A specimen in the Tring Museum, collected on S. Lucia by Selwyn Branch, 

 agrees with other West Indian specimens, and shows nothing of the characters 

 on which Bangs founded his cerceris. I therefore believe that G. c. cerceris 

 should be regarded as a synonym, and that the type is abnormal. Bangs's 

 second specimen is immature. 



11. Gallinula chloropus garmani Allen. 



GaUinula garmani Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. iii. p. 357 (1876 — Lake Titicaca). 



Much larger than other American forms, upperside very dark. 



Lake Titicaca in Southern Peru. According to Bangs also in Western 

 BoUvia and Chile. This may be correct, but specimens from Eastern Bohvia 

 which I examined belong to G. c. galeata. 



It seems doubtful if Gallinula frontata Wall. (G. frontata Wallace, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. London, 1863, p. 35, Buru) should be included in the subspecies of 

 Gall, chloropus. It is easily separable, besides other details, from all other 

 forms by the red legs and larger bill, with more extended frontal shield. These 

 difEerences, though obvious, would not deter me from calling it G. chloropus 

 frontata, but it seems to occur together with G. c. orientalis, in Celebes. I think, 

 therefore, that we must await further investigations, before treating it as a 

 form of G. chloropus, though Stresemann (Novetates Zoologic.\e, 1914, p. 55) 

 did it without hesitation. G. frontata seems to be rare on Celebes, and so does 

 O. c. orientalis, and it may be that either of them is only an occasional straggler 

 on the great island, but this is not yet certain. Besides Celebes, G. frontata 

 occurs on Buru, Ceram, Amboina, New Guinea, Sumba, Flores, and Borneo, 

 but on the latter almost certainly as an exceptional straggler, if the record is 

 correct. 



LITERATURE ON THE FORMS OF GALLINULA CHLOROPUS. 



1894 

 1894 

 1915 

 1915 



Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiii. pp, 168-180. 



Hartert, Nov. Zool. v. pp. 62-64. 



Claude H. B. Grant, Ihis, pp. 47-49. 



Outram Bangs, Proc. New England Zool. Club, v. pp. 93-99 (review 



of the American forms). 



