120 PROBLEMS OF GENETICS 



erally the male is spotted with white, and the female is without 

 spots, but in Waigiu the females are spotted like the males. 4 



The following striking illustration was pointed out to me by 

 Dr. W. D. Miller. Euphonia elegantissima as it occurs in Mexico 

 and Central America has the two sexes very distinct from each 

 other. The male has the lower parts orange and the upper 

 parts a dark indigo blue, with a bright turquoise-blue head and 

 neck. The female, except for the head, is of a bright olive green. 

 A form in which the sexes are similarly differentiated exists in 

 Porto Rico and is known as E. Sclateri. But in many of the 

 other West Indian islands the representative "species" (E. 

 flavifrons) has the two sexes closely resembling the female of 

 E. elegantissima. This form is found in Antigua, Barbados, 

 St. Vincent, and Guadeloupe, from which localities the British 

 Museum has specimens. All three so-called species are very 

 much alike otherwise. 



In the genus Pyrrhulagra (Loxigilla) to which Mr. Outram 

 Bangs called my attention, several distinct and alternative pos- 

 sibilities occur. The genus has many local species occurring 

 on the various West Indian islands. These species are char- 

 acterized by differences in size, colour, and the shape of the bill. 

 The colours have a narrow range, being black or greyish, with 

 or without chestnut marks about the head and throat. In 

 most of the islands the males are in general colour a full black, 

 and the females are distinctly grey. They are thus found in 

 San Domingo, Jamaica, Bahama, and most of the Lesser Antilles. 

 In Porto Rico we meet the peculiarity that the hens are almost 

 as black as the males (Ridgway describes the black of the hens 

 as slightly less intense). This form is called portoricensis. 

 A larger type, known as grandis, similarly coloured, inhabits 

 St. Kitt's. Then, on the contrary, in Barbados, both sexes are 

 a dull blackish grey, like the hens of the Lesser Antilles in general. 



The local species of Agelaius show similarly capricious dis- 

 tinctions. A. phoeniceus is a widely spread species, found over 

 a great part of North America. The male is black with red-orange 



* Jentink, Notes Leyden Mus., 1885, VII, p. in. Specimens illustrating this 

 peculiarity are in the British Museum. 



