Cory on the Birds of the West Indies. 1 95 



Speotyto amaura Lawr. 



Sfeotyto amaura Lawr. Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. I, p. 234 (1878). — Cory, 

 List. Bds. W. I. p. 21 (1S85). 



Sp. Char. Male: — "Upper plumage of a fine deep, brown color, inarked 

 with roundish spots of light fulvous; the spots are smallest on the 

 crown, hind neck, and smallest wing-coverts ; they are conspicuously 

 large on the other wing-coverts, the dorsal region, scapulars, and 

 tertials ; the quills are blackish brown, with indented marks of pale 

 reddish fulvous on the outer webs of the primaries, and large round- 

 ish paler spots on the inner webs; under wing-coverts reddish ful- 

 vous sparsely mottled with black; tail dark brown, of the same color 

 as the back, crossed with four bars (including the terminal one), of 

 light reddish fulvous, which do not quite reach the shaft on each 

 web; bristles at the base of the bill black, with the basal portion of 

 their shafts whitish; front white, superciliary streak pale fulvous; 

 cheeks dark brown, the feathers tipped with fulvous; upper part of 

 throat pale whitish buff, the lower part grayish white, with a buffy 

 tinge, separated by a broad band of dark brown across the middle of 

 the throat, the feathers of which are bordered with light fulvous; 

 the sides of the neck and the upper part and sides of the breast are 

 dark brown, like the back, the feathers ending with fulvous, the 

 spots being larger on the breast; the feathers of the abdomen are 

 pale fulvous, conspicuously barred across their centres with dark 

 brown; on some of the feathers the terminal edgings are of the same 

 color; the flanks are of a clear light fulvous, with bars of a lighter 

 brown; under tail-coverts fulvous, with indistinct bars of brown ; 

 thighs clear fulvous, with nearly obsolete narrow dusky bars; the 

 feathers of the tarsi are colored like the thighs and extend to the 

 toes; bill clear light 3'ellow with the sides of the upper mandible 

 blackish, toes dull yellowish-brown. 



"Length (fresh). Si in. ; wing, (y\ ; tail, 3J ; tarsus, i^. 



"The female differs but little from the male in plumage; the bars 

 on the abdomen appear to be a little more strongly defined, and at 

 the base of the culmen is a small red spot. There are two females in 

 the collection, the other also having the red spot; in one the tarsi 

 are feathered to the toes, in the other only for two-thirds their length. 



"Length of one (fresh), 8 in. ; wing, 6^ ; tail, 2J ; tarsus, 1:^. 



"Length of the other, 8i ; wing, 6^; tail, 3; tarsus, i.J. 



"Compared with gaudcloufensis. the prevailing color is dark 

 brown, instead of a rather light earthy-brown, and the spots on the 

 interscapular region are much larger; it is more strikingly barred 

 below, the other having the breast more spotted; the bars on the 

 tail are four instead of six. In the Antigua bird each feather of the 

 breast is crossed with but one bar. while those of the other are 

 crossed with two." (Lawr., orig. descr., I. c.) 

 Habitat. Antigua. 



