DESCRIPTIONS OF TWO NEW BIRDS FROM HAITI 

 By CHARLES W. RICHMOND 



In a collection recently made by Dr. W. L. Abbott in the northwest- 

 ern peninsula of Haiti, including Tortuga (or Tortue) Island, there 

 appear to be two new subspecies, descriptions of which are given 

 below. The birds collected on Tortuga represent twenty-three 

 species (another was seen but not obtained), which, with the excep- 

 tion of a vireo, prove to be common Haitian forms. 



The most interesting bird in the collection is a Nyctibius, a genus 

 not heretofore recorded from the island. Through the friendly co- 

 operation of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, it has been 

 possible to compare this specimen with five good examples from 

 Jamaica, for the purpose of establishing its subspecific distinctness. 



NYCTIBIUS GRISEUS ABBOTTI, new subspecies 



Type specimen. — Adult male. Cat. No. 250374, U. S. Nat. Mus. ; 

 Port de Pimente, northwestern Haiti, March 9, 191 7, Dr. W. L. 

 Abbott. 



Characters. — Similar to Nyctibius griseus jamaicensis,^ but differs 

 in having the black markings on the pileum much reduced in size and 

 extent (not predominating, as in jamaicensis) , and feathers without 

 any admixture of pale brownish buflfy; general aspect of crown 

 brownish gray and white, with black shaft marks, usually becoming 

 broader toward the tips of the feathers, the black markings most 

 pronounced on feathers over the eyes ; hind neck and mantle grayer, 

 less brownish ; dark bars on rectrices less regular and more broken 

 with gray mottlings and wavy lines ; under tail-coverts with narrower 

 and less prominent dark shaft markings; throat more ashy, less 

 whitish, without any traces of cinnamon bufif ; black submalar streak 

 less prominent ; blackish post-ocular stripe barely indicated, not 

 prominent as in jamaicensis, the auricular region being mostly gray, 

 with very narrow black shaft lines, the edges of some feathers tinged 



* Comparison is made with Ridgway's description (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. 

 No. 50, Pt. 6, 1914, p. 589) and with six skins of the Jamaican bird. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 68, No. 7 



