NO. 2245. BONES OF BIRDS FROM WEST INDIES— WETMORE. 515 



i? larger and the coracoid more slender in leucogastra than in 'pis- 

 c.atoT. 



Though modern accounts do not include St. Thomas in the range 

 of the common Booby, the species is known from other islands near by. 

 Boodies are reported from some islets between Culebrita and Cayo 

 Norte, about 12 miles west of St. Thomas,^ and may occur elsewhere 

 in the vicinity. 



FREGATA MAGNIFICENS Mathews. 



The distal end of a right humerus and a left coracoid nearly com- 

 plete are from the skeleton of the Man-o'-War Bird. There is marked 

 difference in size in skeletons of males and females of this species, 

 the female having the bones longer and heavier throughout than the 

 m Je. The fragments from St. Thomas seem to have come from a 

 male as they are small and slender. 



The Man-o'-War Bird is common around the islands of the Virgin 

 group at the present day. Published lists of the birds of St. Thomas 

 do not include it, but the writer has observed the species in the pas- 

 sage east of Culebra and Culebrita. 



NYCTANASSA VIOLACEA (Linnaeus). 



The Yellow-crowned Night Heron is represented by two right and 

 two left humeri, more or less complete, the distal portion of a left 

 tarso-metatarsus and parts of two right tibio-tarsi. These fragments 

 agree in all their characters with modern skeletons of Nyctanassa 

 violacea, but are above the average in size. This heron differs from 

 other herons examined from the West Indies and from North America 

 north of Mexico in having the fibula ankylosed at its lower end to the 

 shaft of the tibia. In Botaurus lentiginosus, Ixohrychus exilis, Ardea 

 herodiaSy Herodias egretta, Egretta t. thula, Dichromanassa rufescens^ 

 Hydranassa tricolor ruftcollis^ Butorides v. virescens, and Nycticornx 

 n. naevius, the distal end of the fibula remains f ree.^ That Nycticorax 

 should differ from Nyctanassa and resemble other herons in this 

 respect seems strange. 



It is interesting to note that the present-day natives of the Virgin 

 Islands consider the flesh of the Yaboa (as they call the Yellow- 

 crowned Night Heron) a delicacy, and this species is in favor as a 

 game bird. The fragments recorded here seem to show a similar 

 preference on the part of the aboriginal inhabitants. 



GALLUS GALLUS (Linnaeus). 



Among the fragments from the island of St. Thomas occur the 

 following remains of the domestic fowl : Nine cervical vertebrae, in- 

 cluding those from the sixth to the fifteenth inclusive, save the ninth ; 



^Wetmore, A., Birds of Porto Rico, U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 326, 1916, p. 19. 

 2 Skeletons of Ardea ocddentalis are not available for examination. 



