34 Three New Hirds from Cuba and the Bahamas. \ 



Characters. — Similar to passerina of Jamaica, but the bill black with 

 a little red at the base; plumage slightly grayer. 



EemarJcs. — The ground dove from Cuba differs from the Bahaman 

 ground dove in being darker, above and below, with less whitish on the 

 belly and crissum. The ground dove from Jamaica* is verj' similar to 

 the Cuban form in size, but has a reddish cast to the plumage, and the 

 base of the bill is yellow (orange in life); the bill of the Cuban bird is 

 wholly black, except at the base of the lower mandible where it is red 

 in life. The bird from the Bahamas is said to have the bill wholly 

 black in life. The bird from Florida, C. passerina terrestris, is the 

 largest of the four forms under consideration, and the plumage is of a 

 grayer cast than in either passerina or aflavida, but not as light as in 

 baliamensis ; the base of the bill is red in life, drying out to yellowish in 

 the skin. 



Riccordia seneoviridis sp. nov. 



Tyf)e. — No. 108,572, U. S. National Mviseum, $ ad., Abaco, Bahamas. 

 Collected March 27, 1S8G, by U. S. Fish Com. Str. Albatross. 



Characters. — Above and below bright bronze-green; wings purplish 

 black; tail above bronze, deepening into black, with bronzy reflections 

 on the two outer pairs of feathers; tail below deep steel blue; upper tail 

 coverts bronze; crissum and lower belly white; a white spot a little 

 above and behind the eye; upper mandible, in the dried skin, black; 

 lower mandible yellowish, tipped with black. 



Measurement of type. — Wing, 53; tail, 43.5; exposed culmen, 17: mid- 

 dle tail feathers, 22.5 mm. 



Remarks. — The bird from Abaco is of a more coppery green both above 

 and below than the bird from Cuba. In the Abaco bird the bill is 

 slenderer, the fork of the tail less pronounced, and the middle tail 

 feathers broader than in Cuban birds; also the tail of ricordii is not 

 coppery bronze as in Abaco birds. Fourteen males from Cuba average: 

 wing, 52.5; tail, 44; middle tail feather.?, 21: exposed culmen, 18 mm. 

 Fifteen males from Abaco average: wing, 52.5; tail, 42; middle tail 

 feathers, 23; exposed culmen, 17 mm. 



The type of Lawrence's bracei came from New Providence and is a 

 mummy. Comparing the bird from Abaco with this type, shows it to 

 be a different bird or else the colors have changed in bracei. The type 

 of bracei is of a more coppery green, and the throat is of a brighter, and 

 altogether difl'erent shade of green than in the series of Abaco birds 

 before us. The bill of bracei is longer than in either Abaco or Cviban 

 birds. The type of 6ram measures: wing, 45; exposed culmen, 19 mm. 



*We are indebted to Mr. Outram Bangs, for the loan of a series of 

 Jamaican ground doves in the collection of the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoologv. 



