THE BIRDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 257 



West Indian and Bahaman races is so absolutely different as to sug- 

 gest strongly that these constitute a species distinct as is Chordeiht 

 acutipennis. It may be noted too that the eggs of vicinus and gund- 

 lachii of which there is a fair series in the United States National 

 Museum are much less boldly marked than in the continental birds 

 the spots being decidedly finer. Only an occasional egg from North 

 America is as finely marked. The eggs of the West Indian and 

 Bahaman birds thus resemble those of acutipennis. Examination 

 of the skins, however, in series reveals no trenchant difference and 

 though Wetmore is convinced in his own mind that gundlachii and 

 vicinus are specifically distinct the two are listed here as forms of 

 minor pending further observations in the matter. 



The nighthawk is easily told as the only one of the goatsucker 

 family that is regularly abroad by day. Above the bird is heavily 

 mottled with gray and buff on a black background, and below is 

 whitish or buffy white barred narrowly with dusky. There is a 

 buffy white band across the throat and a white bar on the under 

 surface of the primaries near their tips. Males have a wide white 

 bar across the end of the tail that is not found in females. Night- 

 hawks differ from other goatsuckers in lack of strong bristles about 

 the mouth. 



CHORDEILES MINOR GUNDLACHII Lawrence 

 CUBAN NIGHTHAWK, QUEREBEBE, PATIN VOIE 



Chordeiles gundlachii La whence, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York, vol. 6, 

 December, 1856, p. 165. (Cuba.) 



Migrant ; abundance uncertain. 



It has been mentioned above that specimens now at hand of breed- 

 ing nighthawks from Hispaniola belong to the Bahaman form in- 

 stead of the Cuban race as had been supposed in the past. 2 Two, 

 skins taken by Wetmore at Hinche, on April 23, 1927, a male and a 

 female, have the dark dorsal coloration and deep buff under surface 

 characteristic of the Cuban race as at present understood and are 

 identified as that form. They are small in dimension as the fol- 

 lowing measurements (in millimeters) indicate: 



Male, wing 166.5, tail 83.0, culmen from base 8.4, tarsus 11.8. 



Female, wing 168.5, tail 91.0, culmen from base 7.6, tarsus 13.2. 



There is a male in the American Museum of Natural History 

 secured at San Isidrio, Dominican Republic, June 1, 1917, by R. H. 

 Beck, with the wing 161.0, tail 91.9, culmen from base 6.4 and tarsus 

 13.2 mm. that is also determined as this race, as is a female in the 



1 Obeiholser, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 80, 1914, p. 83, includes Haiti in the breeding range 

 of the Cuban nighthawk, but docs not list specimens examined from that island so that 

 basis for his action is uncertain. 



