16 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



or nail of the upper mandible. This, viewed from above, is extremely 

 small, narrow, and linear, the broader terminal half being bent very ab- 

 ruptly downward and backward, so as to be visible only from iu front 

 or below. With the sole exception of Anas dominica, Linn., all the 

 species usually referred to this- genus agree strictly with the type, Anas 

 leucocephala, Scop., notwithstanding other characters are more or less 

 variable. Anas dominica, Linn., has the nail of normal form, or very- 

 much like that prevailing among the ducks generally, and on this account 

 should be separated generically from Urismatura. 



OESCRIPTIOIV OF A NEW SPECIES OF BIRD OF THE FAJUIIiT 

 TVttDtVJE, FKOM THE ISIiAIVH OF DOItlllVICA, W. I. 



By GEO. N. LiAH^REWCE. 



Margarops dominicensis. 



Margarops herminiei-i, Lawr. nee Lair., Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. I, p. 52. 



Male. — Tlie entire upper plumage is of a rich dark brown, the 

 crown is darker and has the edges of the feathers of a lighter 

 shade; tail and quill feathers of a darker brown than the back; 

 axillars and under wing-coverts white ; the lores are blackish brown ; 

 the feathers back of the eyes and the ear-coverts have narrow 

 shaft streaks of pale rufous ; the feathers of the neck and upper 

 part of the breast are of a warm dark brown, those of the chin and 

 middle of the throat with light rufous centres, those of the lower part 

 of the neck and the upper part of the breast have also light rufous cen- 

 tres, but iu addition each feather has a light terminal spot ; on the 

 lower part of the breast and on the sides the feathers have white centres, 

 bordered strikingly with brown ; the markings of the breast-feathers are 

 squamiform in shape, those of the sides lanceolate ; the abdomen is 

 white, a fe:v feathers on the upper part are very narrowly margined 

 with brown; under tail-coverts brown, terminating with white; outer 

 feathers of thighs brown, the inner whitish ; " iris tea-color ; " there is a 

 naked space around the eye ; bill yellow, with the basal half of the upper 

 mandible dusky ; tarsi and toes pale yellow. 



Length (fresh), 9 inches ; wing, 5 ; tail 3J ; tarsus, If ; bill from front, 

 if, from gap, IJ. 



Type in United States National Museum. 



Mr. Ober sent five specimens of this form from Dominica, all males 

 and closely resembling each other. It is probable, as in the allied spe- 

 cies, that the females do not differ in plumage materially from the males. 



Mr. Ober's collection from Dominica contained three species of Mar- 

 garops which I never had seen before. These were referred to known 

 species, two of them, I think, correctly ; but the one which is the sub- 

 ject of this article I now find was erroneously considered to be M. hermi- 

 nierij Lafr. I supposed these species would be the same as those recorded 



