i8SS.] Brewster on Ne-v Birds from Mexico and the Bahamas. 8o 



ativelj short and rounded, the second and third quills equal and longest, the 

 fourth slightly shorter, the first and fifth decidedly shorter than the fourth 

 and equal. Plumage peculiarly soft and velvety ; eyes bordered in front 

 and above by semi-circlets of radiating feathers, the tips directed upward 

 and outward forming distinct superciliary rufts or shields which extend 

 from the gape along the sides of the crown to the occiput where they ter- 

 minate in tufts of elongated feathers, erectile in life and precisely similar 

 in form and position to the 'ear tufts' of Megascopic. The superciliarv 

 shields, also, are curiously Owl-like. The superciliary shields, as w-ell as 

 the feathers along the maxillary line and many of the auriculars, are 

 tipped with a fringe of delicate, black, hair-like bristles of varying length, 

 the longest extending about .30 inch beyond the ends of the feathers. 

 Examined under a glass these bristles prove to be elongated shafts and 

 terminal barbs lacking the barbules. 



This remarkable genus is too strongly characterized to rccjuire 

 comparison with either of its probablv nearest allies, Antros- 

 tom7is and Phalceiioptlliis. The^type is : 



Otophanes mcleodii,* new species. — Eared Whippoorwill. 



9 ad. (No. 14123, collection of W. Brewster, Sierra Madre of Chi- 

 huahua, Mexico, Dec. 6, 1SS4; R. R. McLeod). Jugulum and tips of 

 the tail-feathers (excepting the central pair) white; throat and cheeks 

 light raw umber; remainder of the plumage reddish brown, varying in 

 shade from light vandyke to burnt umber; the feathers almost everv- 

 where (excepting on the white areas) delicately vermiculated with 

 dull brown or grayish; a broad tipping on the central feathers of the 

 crown, the shoulders, wings, tail, a band across the breast, another aci-oss 

 the abdomen, and some large, more or less regularly heart-shaped spots 

 on the scapulars, burnt umber, deepest on the crown, shoulders and scap- 

 ular spots, several of the latter approaching seal-brown; some of the 

 feathers of the abdomen and wing-coverts spotted with brownish white; 

 primaries and secondaries tipped (the former to some extent edged, also) 

 with light Vandyke brown and crossed with numerous, rather narrow, dull 

 black bands; all the tail-feathers excepting the central pair tipped with 

 white, more or less tinged with rusty; this white tipping broadest on the 

 second and third pair (counting the feathers inward), slightly narrower on 

 the first pair, narrowest and strongly rusty on the fourth pair; its width 

 varying from .25 to .45 of an inch. The second and third pairs of feathers 

 have the white bounded basally by brownish black, immaculate on the 

 inner webs for a space about .75 of an inch deep, but on the outer webs 

 variegated somewhat with rusty brown ; below these dark spaces the feath- 

 ers just mentioned are banded narrowly across both webs to their bases 

 with dark brown ; the first (outer) and fourth (next to inner) pairs of 

 feathers are crossed by about ten narrow, well defined brownish black 

 bands distributed at regular intervals from the white tips to their bases ; 



*To R. R. McLeod of Houlton, Maine. 



