54 Oberholsci — The Status of Bat or ides brunescem (Lembeye). 



is a perfectly distinct species, though of about the same size as 

 Butorides virescens from Cuba. It has also the same habits and 

 associates freely with the latter, at least on its feeding grounds. 



In adult plumage the uniform chestnut neck and sides of 

 head, the dark, inconspicuous wing edgings, and other less 

 striking characters, distinguish it at a glance from any of the 

 forms of Butorides virescens, save perhaps occasional specimens 

 from the island of San Miguel, one of the Pearl Islands, 

 in the Bay of 1'anama, to which superficial resemblance 

 Messrs. Thayer and Bangs have already called attention.* 

 With this bird, however, there is not any real intergradation 

 in color, for Butorides brunescens never has, so far as we know, 

 the broadly whitish edge of wing, the narrow pale margins of 

 wing-coverts, nor any indication of a median light or white 

 stripe on throat or jugulum, all of which are present in even 

 the most extreme specimens of Butorides virescens from the 

 Pearl Islands. In juvenal plumage there is still more striking 

 contrast of colors, for the juvenal stage of the bird from the 

 Pearl Islands is of practically the same pattern as the young of 

 all the other races of Butorides virescens, and thus very different 

 from the dark, dull, almost uniform (except for pileum, wings, 

 back, and tail) brownish coloration of juvenal Butorides brunes- 

 cens. Nor is there, in the young, any suggestion of intermedi- 

 ate vergence toward any form of Butorides virescens. The 

 following further account of this rare species may prove of 

 interest in this connection. 



Butorides brunescens (Lembeye). 



Ardea brunescens Lembeyk (Guxe-lach MS.), Ares de hi Isla de Cuba, 

 1850, p. 84, pi. XII (C\iba). 



Ardm brunnescens A. and E. Newton, Ibis, 1S59, p. 262 (Culm; in text); 

 Guxdlacit, Journ. f. Orn., 1871, p. 282; Reichenow, Journ. f. On., 

 IS77, p. 255 (Cuba); Cory, Auk IV, 1887, p. 327 (Cuba); Birds 

 West Indies, 1889, p. 248 (Cuba); Cat. West Indian Birds, 1892, p. 

 90 (Cuba); Maynard, Cat. Birds West Indies, 1898, p. 4 (Cuba). 



A[rdea], brunnescens Reich know, Journ. f. Orn., 1877, p. 277; Ridgway, 

 Man. North Amer. Birds, 1887, p. 131 (Cuba); ibid, ed. 2, 1895, p. 

 131 (Cuba); ibid, ed. 4, 1900, p. 131 (Cuba); Cory, List Birds West 

 Indies, 1885, p. 28 (Cuba); ibid, rev. ed., 1886, p. 28 (Cuba). 



Ocniscus brunnescens Cabanis, Journ. f. Orn., 1856, p. 344 (Cuba); 

 Brewer, 1'roc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., VII, 1800, p. 30S (Cuba); 

 » Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., XLVI, September, L905, pp. 142-144. 



