BIEDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 15 



JACANA NIGRA (Gmelin). 



BLACK JACANA. 

 BLACK-BACKED PHASE. 



Adult (sexes alike). — General color, including axiUars and under 

 wing-coverts, plain black of a very faint greenish cast, the under 

 wing-coverts and posterior under parts sometimes more sooty, 

 becoming somewhat more brownish (sometimes warm blackish 

 brown or seal brown), occasionally margined with black, on tertials 

 and posterior scapulars; primaries and secondaries dull yellowish 

 green (lime green or dull citron green), margined terminally with 

 blackish, the blackish margins very narrow and strictly terminal on 

 secondaries, broader on primaries, especially the longer ones, on 

 which they continue for a greater or less distance along both webs, 

 the outermost primary with outer web wholly blackish; bill yellow, 

 the basal portion, together with frontal shield and rictal lobes, 

 red or orange (in life) ; iris brown; legs and feet dusky (bluish gray in 

 life). 



MAROON-BACKED PHASE. 



• Adults (sexes alike). — Back, scapulars, wing-coverts (at least the 

 proximal and posterior ones), and tertials, sometimes rump and 

 upper tail-coverts also, plain dark .purplish brown (maroon to 

 diamine brown) ; head, neck, extreme upper back, and under parts, 

 including axillars and under w^ing-coverts (sometimes rump, upper 

 taO-coverts, and distal and anterior wing-coverts also), uniform 

 greenish black, the posterior under parts usually somewhat duller 

 or more brownish; primaries and secondaries as in the black-backed 

 phase. 



Young (both phases) . — Pileum plain deep sooty brown or blackish 

 brown, bordered laterally by a broad superciliary stripe of dull buffy 

 white (sometimes distinctly buff posterior to the eye), extending 

 from bill to sides of occiput; a broad stripe extending from eye to 

 nape, together with hindneck, extreme upper back, rump, and upper 

 tail-coverts, plain black; back, scapulars, wing-coverts, tertials, and 

 tail plain grayish brown, with a faint bronzy gloss; primaries and 

 secondaries as in adults, but with terminal margins dusky grayish 

 brown instead of black, and rather broader; suborbital, rictal and 

 malar regions, and entire under parts immaculate buffy white, the 

 foreneck and chest sometimes distinctly buffy; frontal shield greatly 

 reduced in size, and rictal lobe absent or rudimentary; bill brownish, 

 the mandible paler; frontal and rictal lobes pinkish; legs and feet 

 dusky grayish or olive. 



Adult ma7e.— Wing, 113-128 (118.3); tail, 36-46.5 (39.9); bill, 

 from nostril, 15.5-18.5 (17.2); from posterior margin of frontal 



