THE BIRDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 89 



by some uncertainty regarding Cory's least bittern, which may be 

 an erythrism of eoeilis, though some contend that it is specifically 

 distinct. 



The least bittern, the smallest of our herons, is only from 315 to 

 340 mm. in length, and is slight and slender in body. Its plumage 

 is marked by bufl'y and rufescent tints, with the crown and back 

 black in males and brown in females. 



Suborder ClCONlAE 



Superfamily CICONIIDES 



Family CICONIIDAE 



Subfamily Mycteriinae 



MYCTERIA AMERICANA Linnaeus 

 WOOD IBIS, FAISAN 



Mycieria americana Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 140 (Bra- 

 zil).— Bond, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 80, 1928, p. 520 (listed). 



Pheasant, Saint-Mery, Descrip. Span. Part Saint-Domingo, vol. 1, 1798, p. 

 85 (Plain of Neiba). 



Tantalus loculator, Christy, Ibis, 1897, p. 338 (Yuna swamps). 



Resident locally in the Dominican Republic, now very rare. 



The wood ibis is well known to hunters in the Dominican Republic 

 under the name Faisan, but no report of it in adjacent Haiti has 

 come to our eyes. Moreau de Saint-Mery speaks of the " Pheasant" 

 as common at the close of the eighteenth century on the plain of 

 Neiba. Christy reports wood ibises at the end of June, 1895, in the 

 swamps at the mouth of the Rio Yuna, describing their occurrence 

 as follows : " I saw five of these birds about half a mile off perched 

 on a tree covered with matted creepers. They very soon rose, and 

 rather to my surprise circled high up into the air. We several times 

 during that day saw single birds, and once I obtained a long shot at 

 one flying over, but without result. The boatman called them the 

 ' Faisan.' What the word meant they could not tell me ; but it seemed 

 to have some connection with the bare vulture-like head and neck of 

 the birds." The local name is the Spanish term for pheasant, whose 

 application to the present species seems curious. Abbott, in June, 

 1919, heard of large ibises on the Arroyo Guayabo which flows into 

 the Yuna a few miles above its mouth, and in September of the same 

 year saw one at Saona Island. 



At Sanchez, in May, 1927, Wetmore was told by experienced hunt- 

 ers that the species had not been seen on the Yuna for several years. 

 He heard report of it, however, in the swamps of the lower Yaqui 

 del Norte, and in the vicinity of Lake Enriquillo. and was told that 



