BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 849 



bb. Pilouin and nape concolor witli 1)ack and rumj). 

 c. Upper parts rufous-tawny. Platypsarishomochrous, ad ulU'emale and younjj(p. 859) 

 cc. Upper parts grayish . . Platypsaris minor, ad ul t female (and young?) (extralimital)o 



PLATYPSARIS NIGER i Gmelin). 

 JAMAICAN BECARD. 



Adult tnale. — Pileum and nape l)la('k, the feathers margined with 

 sHghtly glossy bhie-black; rest of upper parts phiin slightly glossy 

 slate-black, the innermost scapulars with much concealed white, 

 chiefly on inner webs; sides of head and neck and entire under parts 

 plain sooty slate color, the chin and upper throat slightly paler and 

 more brownish; bill blackish brown or dusky horn color (in dried 

 skins); legs and feet dusky horn color (more or less bluish in life?); 

 length (skins), 167-178 (171); wing, 97-104 (101.3); tail, 70-77 (74); 

 exposed culmen, 15.5-16.5 (16); tarsus, 22.5-24.5 (23.1); middle toe, 

 15-16 (15.4).'' 



Adult female. — Pileum and nape plain deep brown (prouts to be- 

 tween Vandyke and sepia), slightly paler on forehead, the feathers of 

 occiput and nape (sometimes of crown also) usually slightly tipped 

 or terminally margined with black; back, scapulars, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts dark brownish gray or grayish brown (slightly 

 paler posteriorly), the hindneck similar, but more brownish ; wings and 

 tail deep brown (sepia or warm sepia), the outer surface of greater 

 wing-coverts and secondaries (sometimes edges of primaries also) 

 more russet-brown; latero-frontal plumules pale russet or brownish 

 buffy; lores pale grayish, tinged with pale brownish buff; rest of 

 sides of head light russet (the suborbital region sometimes more 

 buffy); chin pale dull buffy, deepening into pale brownish buff to 

 cinnamon-buff or clay color on throat and upper chest, this fading 

 into pale grayish buify on breast, the remaining under parts pale 

 bulfy gray or grayish buffy, the under tail-coverts and thighs light 

 brownish (the latter more btiffy or cinnamomeous) ; axillars and 

 under wing-coverts wood brown or cinnamon-brown; mner webs of 



Platypsans aglaix, and I am also unable to state in precise terms the differences that 

 may exist between them and the adult female and young of P. atricapillus. The 

 difficulty is in large measure owing to the strong probability that many specimens 

 which according to their labels are alleged to be females are in reality young males, 

 for there is no other way of accounting for the gi'eat variation in coloring, except by the 

 hypothesis that the females of certain forms (notably P. aglaix aglaix and P. a. sunii- 

 chrasti) have two very different phases of phmiage — a gi'ayish brown and a rufous or 

 tawny one. Certain other forms seem not to vary in this way, the females of P. a. 

 hijpophxus and P. a. latiroslris being apparently alwaj'^s of the rufous-tawny style, 

 while those of P. a. albirentris seem always to be brownish gray above. 



" I have not seen eith(>r the adult female or yoimgof P. minor, but derive the above 

 eliaracter from Doctor Sclater's description (Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xiv, 1888, 337). 



b Five specimens. 



11422— VOL 4—07 54 



