278 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



Holoquiscalus jamaicensis gundlachii: 



1262^2 San Carlos (Estate), Guantanamo, Cuba 149 



1273" San Carlos (Estate), Guantanamo, Cuba 152 



136922 San Carlos (Estate), Guantanamo, Cuba 152 



5724323 Trinidad, Cuba 152 



5724923 Trinidad, Cuba 150 



5725023 Trinidad, Cuba 152 



5725223 Trinidad, Cuba 156 



5725323 Trinidad, Cuba 150 



5725523 Trinidad, Cuba 150 



5725623 Trinidad, Cuba 142 



5725723 Trinidad, Cuba 151 



1726481^ Guanaja, Cuba 149 



17783219 Baracoa, Cuba 154 



The Isle of Pines Holoquiscalus, as represented by the above fine 

 series, was naturally at first referred to the recognized Cuban species, 

 H. gundlachii, but the remarks of Messrs. Bangs and Zappey with 

 reference to the variation which obtains in that form led me to look 

 into the matter a little further, with wholly unlooked-for results. 

 In the course of this investigation it became necessary to examine all 

 of the Greater Antillean forms of this genus, which the latest reviser 

 of the group (Ridgway, Birds of North and Middle America, II, 1902, 

 222 et seq.) treats as distinct species, apparently on the ground that as 

 insular forms they cannot be expected to intergrade. I have always 

 felt doubt as to the propriety of such an arrangement, and the acquis- 

 ition of a series of grackles from Porto Rico and the Isle of Pines has 

 been made the occasion for a renewed study of this group, the con- 

 clusions from which I present herewith. This study has been made 

 possible only through the loan of a considerable number of specimens 

 from other sources, as elsewhere indicated. 



Comparison of the series of adult males from the Isle of Pines with a 

 similar series from Trinidad, on the south coast of Cuba, shows at 

 once that the two series represent entirely distinct forms, differing 

 not only in size (except for the bill), but also in color. In the Isle of 

 Pines specimens the gloss is a dark steel-blue, very pronounced both 



19 Collection U. S. National Museum. 



20 Collection Field Museum of Natural History. 



21 Collection Carnegie Museum. 



22 Collection Charles T. Ramsden. 



23 Collection American Museum of Natural History. 



