Oberholsei — The Status of Butorides brunescens (Lcmbeye). 55 



< iiNniAcn. Journ. f. Urn., 1875, p. 308 (Cuba); Contrib. Omit. 



Cubana, 1876, p. 156 ( Cuba I. 

 [Ocniscus] brunnesce ns Gundlach, Repert. Fisico-Nat. Cuba, I, 1866, p. 



350 (Cardenas, Cuba). 

 Butorides brunnescens Baird, Rep. Explor. and Snrv. R. R. Pac, IX, 



L858, p. 677 (Cuba; in text); Cat. Amer. Birds, 1859, p. 13, No. 494; 



Birds North Amer., i860, p. 677 (Cuba; in text); Lawrence, Ann. 



New York Lye. Nat. Hist., VII, 1860, p. 271 (Cuba); Newton, Ibis, 



1861, p. 275 (in text); Allen, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, V, 1880, p. 88 



(in text); Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Ill, 1880, pp. 214, 237; 



Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 21, 1881, pp. (50, 83; Gundlach, Ornit, 



Cubana, 1893 I 1895), p. 189 (Cuba); Bangs and Zappey, Amer. Nat., 



XXXIX, Apr., 1905, p. 188 (Isle of Pines); Thayer and Bangs, 



Bull. Mus. Comp. Z I., XLVI, No. 8, Sept., 1905, p. 142 (Cuba; 



in text ). 

 B[utorides]. brunnescens Ridgway, in Baird, Brewer, *and Ridgway, 



Water Birds North Amer., I, 1884, p. 49 (Cuba). 

 [Butorides] brunnescens Sharps, Hand-List Gen. Spec. Birds, I, 1899, 



p. 200 (Culm i. 

 [Ocniscus {Butorides)} brunnescens Gundlach, Journ. f. Orn., 1861, 



p. 338 (Culm). 

 [Ardea t Butorides)] brunnescens Gray, Hand-List Gen. Spec. Birds, III, 



1871, p. 32 (Cuba i. 



Chars, sp. — Similar to Butorides virescens from Cuba, but entire neck 

 purplish maroon, usually duller, without trace of a median lighter stripe 

 or blackish streaks — only the chin paler, but this never white; posterior 

 lower parts usually darker and more brownish; edge of wing with outer 

 under wing-coverts not broadly creamy or burly white, but blackish or 

 brownish slate color, with only a very narrow whitish or buft'y line along 

 the extreme margin; edgings of superior wing-coverts either obsolescent 

 or so deeply tawny as to be very inconspicuous, thus, at a little distance, 

 giving the impression of their absence; bill usually all black; naked skin 

 above lores also black, instead of whitish. 



Description. — Adult male, No. 172,719, U. S. Nat. Mus. ; Nueva Gerona, 

 Isle of Pines, West Indies, July 2, 1900; W. Palmer and J. H. Riley. 

 Pileiun, occipital crest, postocular region, and a short sub-auricular 

 streak, deep, somewhat bluish, glossy bottle green; rest of sides of head, 

 with neck all around, purplish chestnut, the chin paler — light tawny 

 ochraceous, the lower jugulum slightly paler and glaucous; upper surface 

 of body deep, dull bottle green, the long, pointed, plume-like feathers of 

 hack and scapulars glaucous and somewhat bluish; wing-quills fuscous, 

 the outer -\\ehs glossed with dull bluish green; all the superior wing- 

 coverts somewhat glossy, bluish bottle green, more or less margined 

 inconspicuously with tawny and chestnut; tail dark, bluish bottle green, 

 somewhat glossy; posterior lower parts and lining of wing brownish 

 slate gray, the thighs more rufescent. 



