88 BANGS — THE GENUS PAECILONITTA. 
Jamaica and Cuba being two of the larger islands from which it 
is absent. Specimens from the Guianas and the lower Amazon 
are quite like West Indian examples, and are true Paecilonitta 
bahamensis (Linn.). Those from southern South America, — 
southern Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, etc.,— though little 
different in color, are much larger, and represent a recognizable 
subspecies for which there are several names. I have seen no 
intergrades, but doubtless these occur in middle Brazil or 
Bolivia. 
The Galapagos pintail, Paecilonitta galapagensis Ridg., has 
by some authors been treated as a species, by others as a sub- 
species of the continental bird. It is so different from P. baha- 
mensis that I much prefer to regard it as an island species. It 
is slightly smaller. The male averages: wing, 202; tail, 76.5; 
tarsus, 38; culmen, 50.5 mm. The female averages: wing, 
185.5; tail, 74; tarsus, 34.5; culmen,46.5mm. In general colora- 
tion it is grayer, less buffy or fawn-color. The under parts are 
less sharply spotted, especially in the female, in which the dusky 
markings have more the appearance of indistinct streaks; the 
cheeks are thickly spotted with dusky, instead of being immac- 
ulate white; the axillars, which in P. bahamensis are plain 
white,! are irregularly spotted or barred with dusky. 
The South American pintail, Dafila spinicauda (Vieill.), I 
unhesitatingly remove from the genus Dafila and place in 
Paecilonitta, as it shares with the members of the latter genus 
a culmen which — viewed in profile —is more concave, less 
straight than in Dafila; a shorter neck; shorter and wider 
rectrices; a close similiarity of color in the sexes; and also the 
same general style of coloration. 
The African P. erythrorhyncha (Gmel.) is perhaps a little 
aberrant in its shorter tail, etc., but on the whole it agrees 
fairly well with the other species of Paecilonitta. 
I should therefore arrange the species and subspecies of 
the genus, as follows: — 
1 Very seldom, in P. bahamensis, — perhaps in immature birds, — some of the axillars 
are somewhat freckled with dusky. 
