280 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



other so well in their general characters that I propose to unite them 

 as conspecific. Indeed, all the Greater Antillean forms are so closely 

 related that they might be regarded as conspecific without doing 

 violence to the facts in the case, so far as can be judged from the ex- 

 amination of specimens. Whether their habits differ in any essential 

 manner I do not know. The Haitian and Porto Rican forms, too, 

 have so many characters in common that in my judgment they should 

 stand as subspecies of a third specific type. According to my views, 

 arrived at after a careful study and comparison of a series of all the 

 various forms involved, these should stand as follows, the diagnostic 

 characters being based on the adult males alone. 



a. Body-plumage strongly glossed with dark steel-blue, with little or no vio- 

 laceous shade. 



b. Larger; steel-blue gloss more pronounced. (Western Cuba and Isle of 



Pines) Holoquiscalus caymanensis dispar. 



bb. Smaller; gloss of plumage with a slight violaceous shade. (Grand Cay- 

 man) Holoquiscalus caymanensis caymanensis. 



aa. Body-plumage strongly glossed with violaceous. 



c. Violaceous gloss more intense; bill relatively longer and slenderer. 



(Eastern Cuba) Holoquiscalus jam.aicensis giindlachii. 



cc. Violaceous gloss less intense; bill relatively shorter and stouter. (Jamaica) 



Holoquiscalus jamaicensis jamaicensis. 

 aaa. Body-plumage glossed with dark purplish black, especially posteriorly. 



d. Bill wider, relatively longer, with the tip less strongly decurved. (Haiti) 



Holoquiscalus niger niger. 



dd. Bill more compressed, relatively shorter, with the tip more strongly 



decurved. (Porto Rico) Holoquiscalus niger brachypterus. 



The above seems to me a more logical arrangement than that at 

 present in vogue, but in any case, should one or more of these six forms 

 be held to be of specific value, a due regard for consistency would 

 require all to be so treated. The various forms from the Lesser An- 

 tilles would also seem to require revision along the same lines, but I have 

 no occasion to discuss this matter further in the present connection. 



The males of the lot from the Isle of Pines are divided readily into 

 two series when regard is had to the amount of glossiness of the general 

 plumage. The less glossy birds closely resemble the fully adult 

 females in color, but are of course larger. These I take to be birds 

 in first nuptial plumage. The females also differ among themselves 

 in a corresponding manner. Most of the specimens from western Cuba 

 which I have seen chance to be in this immature dress; they thus 



