THE BIRDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 149 



two on Grande Cayemite Island, January 5, 1918. Wetmore killed 

 a pair April 3, 1927, near Aquin on the south coast. There these 

 plovers were common on open flats about a salt water lagoon. They 

 ran about in the open, the heavy bill coupled with the dark band 

 across the breast being marks that distinguished them easily from 

 other shorebirds found here. Their call is a high-pitched feet feet. 

 The two taken were near the nesting season. 



Danforth records them in 1927 at Les Salines and also on Gonave 

 Island where he collected four. Bond found them at Port-de-Paix 

 and Fort Liberte, writing that a boy brought him an egg at the latter 

 point on April 29, 1928. He collected two on Gonave Island Feb- 

 ruary 8, 1928, and reports them as found also on Tortue Island. 

 Poole and Perrygo found them common near Fort Liberte, collecting 

 fourteen skins from February 7 to 19, 1929. 



Subspecific relationships of the West Indian individuals of this 

 species have been somewhat puzzling. The West Indian race was 

 named rufinucha by Kidgway many years ago but recently 54 has been 

 considered by the same author as inseparable from the group found 

 along the coasts of the southeastern United States. Comparison of 

 a series of twenty-one recent specimens from Hispaniola upholds 

 Peters' contention 55 that there is a West Indian race marked by darker 

 color of the dorsal surface. It appears that this difference lessens 

 appreciably as specimens age in our collections as skins from Porto 

 Rico and Cuba taken twenty-five years ago are so slightly darker 

 than those of Florida that recently Wetmore has been misled into 

 considering them not worthy of separation from true wilsonia. 56 

 On examining the fresh material indicated above in connection with 

 the older series he is now convinced that rufinucha is valid, and that 

 the form found on Porto Rico as well as on Hispaniola should bear 

 that name. 



Following are measurements of specimens from Hispaniola: 



Ten males, wing 114.1-123.1 (118.0), tail 43.7-49.4 (47.2), culmen 

 from base 19.3-23.5 (21.0), tarsus 28.7-32.2 (30.9) mm. 



Eleven females, wing 113.8-123.7 (119.3), tail 44.0-50.1 (48.0), 

 culmen from base 19.4-22.3 (21.1), tarsus 28.6-32.2 (30.4) mm. 



The rufous-naped plover is larger than the semipalmated plover, 

 but is similarly colored in that it is white below with a dark band 

 across the chest, and grayish brown above. It is easily told by the 

 large, heavy bill. 



"Ridgway, R., U. S. Nat. Mus., Bull. 50, pt. 8, 1919, pp. 110-112. 

 "Auk, 1927, p. 535; Bull. Mus. Conip. Zool., vol. 61, 1917, p. 405. 

 66 See Wetmore, A., New York Acad. Sci., Scl. Surv. Porto Rico and Virgin Islands, 

 vol. 9, 1927, pp. 352-353. 



