255 [Brj'ant, 



tion of black on the upper tail coverts and crissiim. The plumage of 

 the young bird is reddish-olive above, deepest on the head and shaded 

 into yellow on the rump ; rufous-olive beneath with a yellow ground, 

 the rufous deepest on the breast and with the upper part of throat 

 nearly yellow. 



Quiscalus. 



Quiscalus crassirostris Sw. ? Resembling closely the Jamaica 

 bird, but smaller and Avith the purple of the back extending to the tips 

 of the upper tail coverts instead of becoming greenish on the rump. 



Alee do. 



Megaceryle. . 

 Alcedo alcyon Linn. 



Coeeyzus. 



Coccyzus minor Linn. Several specimens of this bird fi*om 

 Porto Rico cannot be distinguished from others in the Smithsonian 

 Collection from Jamaica, St. Thomas, Santa Cruz, Cuba, Central 

 America and Florida ? Their average size is rather larger instead 

 of smaller as stated by Mr. Taylor, though this difference I consider 

 of no importance, as specimens of our common yellow-billed cuckoo 

 can easily be found varying an inch in length. A specimen collected 

 by Mr. Newton in Santa Cruz is identified as nesiotes Cabanis, by 

 Mr. Sclater. This bird resembles precisely the other specimens in the 

 collection. In Cabanis' description of nesiotes the only specific char- 

 acter given is the total absence of white on the outer web of the outer 

 tail feather. I have never seen any adult yellow-billed cuckoo pos- 

 sessing such a character, and certainly the specimen identified as 

 nesiotes by Mr. Sclater does not. Young birds of the present species, 

 and perhaps of all the yellow-billed cuckoos, have the tail marked as in 

 the black-billed species; several specimens in the collection of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences clearly demonstrate this. Some con- 

 fusion seems to exist in the determination of the West Indian species of 

 the subgenus Coccyzus, which has not been diminished by Mr. Sclater 

 in his monograph of this group, in which the bird identified as Domini- 

 cus by Professor Baird is described as a new species under the name 

 of Bairdii. As I have never seen a specimen from St. Domingo I can- 

 not determine whether Professor Baird was correct in identifying the 

 Jamaica bird as that species, but Mr. Sclater certainly errs in compar- 

 ing it with. Americanus, as the specific characters of Professor Baird's 

 species are the rufous edging of the quill feathers not found in the 

 latter bird and the tail marked as in erythrophthalmus instead of the 

 distinct black and white tips of Americanus. Notwithstanding the 



