VM. XXIX, pp. 103-104 June 6, 1916 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



TWO NEW RALLIFORMES FROM TROPICAL AMERICA. 



BY J. H. RILEY. 



[By permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.] 



Mr. Robert Ridgway has called my attention to two appar- 

 ently undescribed forms of Ralliformes in the collection of the 

 U. S. National Museum and has kindly permitted me to 

 describe them. I am indebted to the authorities of the American 

 Museum of Natural History for the loan of the type and five 

 specimens of the lately described Fulica americana columhiana 

 Chapman. The two forms may be described as follows: 



Fulica americana grenadensis subsp. nov. 



Type, female adult, U. 8. National Museum, No. 84,840, Isle de Rhonde, 

 Grenada, B. W. I., May 9, 1881. Collected by J. G. Wells. 



Similar to Fulica americana columhiana Chapman,* but the bill pro- 

 portionally heavier and more wrinkled; the frontal shield more swollen. 

 Wing, 184.5; tail, 47.5; culmen with frontal shield, 50.5; depth of bill 

 at base, 17.5 ; tarsus, 56; middle toe, 72. 



Remarks. — While this form is very close to the lately described Fulica 

 americana columhiana, I think the differences are sufficient to warrant 

 separation, especially as the ranges are widely separated. The type of 

 Fulica americana grenadensis has the upper part of the bill rather deeply 

 wrinkled longitudinally, showing that it must have been much swollen in 

 life. While it is well known that the upper part of the bill and frontal 

 shield become much swollen in the breeding season in the coots, I have 

 found no specimen in the series of Fulica americana americana or Fulica 

 americana columhiana where it occurs to the same extent. From Fulica 

 caribsca the new form difTers in the same way as columhiana does from that 

 species and as Chapman has already pointed out the difierences in his 

 description of columhiana they need not be repeated here. The frontal 

 shield in Fulica americana grenadensis is similar in shape and color to 

 that of F. a. americana, but more swollen and larger and the bill much 



*Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., xxxiii. 1914, 170. 



24— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXIX, 1916. (103) 



