84 Brewster on AVw Birds from Mexico and thr Bahamas. [January 



March 8, 18S6). Top of head dark, dull green strongly tinged with 

 brownish on the forehead; throat, jugulum and fore neck creamy white 

 with dusky spotting on the jugulum ; remainder of head and neck light 

 chestnut, approaching cinnamon in places; fore part and sides of back 

 rusty cinnamon; rump and most of upper tail-coverts drab ; dorsal plumes 

 dull greenish, the central ones glaucous with a tinge of lilac; wings and 

 tail dull green, the wing-coverts edged broadly on both webs, the second- 

 aries more narrowly on the outer webs only, with rusty or whitish ; under 

 wing-coverts, breast, abdomen, crissum and sides of body liglit yellowish 

 drab. 



$ ■ d. (No. 108,814, collection Nat. Mus., Rum Cay, Bahamas, March 2, 

 18S6). Similar to the $ just described, but with the dorsal plumes duller, 

 browner, and more strongly tinged with lilac. 



A third specimen without sex mark (No. 108,645, collection Nat. Mus., 

 Abaco, Bahamas, April 3, 18S6), difters from both of those just mentioned 

 in having the sides of head and neck as well as the fore back yellowish 

 rusty or cinnamon rusty with scarcely a tinge of chestnut; the dorsal 

 plumes brownish glaucous rather strongly glossed with lilac and without 

 apparent greenish ; and the wing-coverts very broadly edged with brownish 

 white. 



Measurements, extremes of six specimens: Wing, 6.15-6.50; tarsus, 

 1.75-2.08; bill (culmen from feathers), 2.09-2.54. 



Habitat. Bahamas (Rum Cay, VVatling's Island, Abaco). 



All of the eight specimens of this Heron which I have examined 

 are distinguishable at a glance from A. vircscens by their decid- 

 edly paler, browner and more uniform coloring. The diflerence is 

 hardly of a kind or degree that would warrant the separation of 

 the new form as a full species, were it not foi" its ishind habitat 

 which, of course, renders intergradation with A. vircscefis 

 improbable. The latter, curiously enough, seems to be generally 

 distributed throughout the remainder of the West Indies, for, in 

 the rather large West Indian series in Mr. Cory's collection and 

 that of the National Museum, I do not find any birds that difler 

 appreciably from virescens^ excepting possibly in size, the West 

 Indian skins averaging considerably smaller than those from the 

 United States at large, although they are not apparently smaller 

 than those from Florida. 



Haematopus frazari,* new species. — Frazar's Oy.ster Catcher. 

 Sp. Char. — Differing from H. palliattis in having a stouter, more de- 

 pressed bill, little or no white on the eyelids, the back, scapulars, and 

 wing-coverts richer and deeper brown, the pi-imaries and tail-feathers 

 darker, the upper tail-coverts more or less varied with brown and white, 



* To M. Abbott Frazar of Watertown, Mass. 



