BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 235 



primaries decidedly longer than longest secondaries by about one- 

 fourth the length of wing, or slightly more; fourth (from outside) 

 primary longest, the first (outermost) intermediate between seventh 

 and eighth or eighth and ninth. Tail a little less than three-fourths 

 as long as wing, truncated or very slightly rounded, the rectrices (12- 

 14) very broad, with broadly rounded tips. Tarsus about as long as 

 exposed culmen, or slightly shorter, less than one-fourth as long as 

 wing, slender, the acrotarsium transversely scutellate, the planta tarsi 

 reticulated or covered with small hexagonal scales ; tibia bare for more 

 than half the length of tarsus, non-scutellate (booted) ; middle toe, 

 without claw, about three-fourths as long as tarsus (sometimes very 

 slightly less, sometimes decidedly more) ; outer toe (without claw) 

 extending to beyond subterminal articulation of middle toe, the inner 

 toe decidedly shorter falling short of that point ; hallux slightly ele- 

 vated, narrow, compressed, shorter than basal phalanx of inner toe ; 

 claws short, rather stout, moderately curved, that of middle toe not 

 pectinated; a distinct web between basal phalanges of middle and 

 outer toes, but none between middle and inner toes. 



Plumage and coloration. — Plumage full and soft (bitternlike) ex- 

 cept on neck, where very short ; head fully feathered except a narrow 

 space on lower eyelids and, in the postocular region, where partly 

 naked or but sparsely feathered ; remiges and rectrices very broad ; 

 no crest. Head blackish with two lateral stripes (one superciliary) 

 of white and whole chin and throat white; back and scapulars 

 broadly barred with black; smaller wing coverts olive-brown and 

 grayish spotted with white (on proximal lesser coverts) and indis- 

 tinctly or brokenly barred with the same (on larger coverts) ; pri- 

 maries with broad areas of chestnut and black, otherwise light olive 

 barred or vermiculated with buff, their terminal portion vermicu- 

 lated or mottled with light and dark gray and tipped with dusky; 

 tail irregularly barred or coarsely vermiculated with dark gray 

 and grayish white and crossed by two black bands each preceded by 

 a narrow, more broken one of chestnut. Monotyi^ic. 



KEY TO THE SUBSPECIES OF EURYPYGA HELIAS 



a. Black bands on upperparts, especially interscapulars and upper back, much 

 wider than interspaces ; interspaces buffy. 



Eurypyga helias helias (extralimital)" 



^ Ardea helias Pallas, Neue Nord. Beitr., ii, 1781, 48, pi. 3 (Surinam); 

 Goudot, Mag. Zool., 1843, text to pis. 37, ZS.—[Arde-s'\ helias Gmelin, Syst. Nat. 

 1, pt. 2, 1789, GAO.—[Scolopax] helias Latham, Index Orn., ii, 1790, 725.— 

 Rallus helias Temminck, Cat. Syst., 1807, 176. — Eurypyga helias lUiger, Prodr. 

 Orn., 1811, 257; Reichenbach, Handb., Fulicariae, 1851, pi. 124, figs. 1219, 1220; 

 Des Murs, in Castelnau's Exped. Am^rique du Sud, Ois., 1855, 90; Taylor, Ibis, 

 1864, 95 (Rio Orinico) ; Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, v. No. 30, livr. 7, Ralli, 1865, 73 



