BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. th 
-bb. Frontal shield with free margins. 
ce. Metacarpal spur rudimentary or small, blunt; primaries wholly blackish. 
d. Frontal shield very large, ridged or crested medially; bill more slender, 
not longer than head. (Australia, New Guinea, Celebes, southeastern, 
Borneo, and Philippines.)..............-...-. Irediparra (extralimital).¢ 
dd. Frontal shield small, not ridged or crested medially; bill much stouter, 
longer than head. (India to Siam, Java, Sumatra, and Celebes.) 
Metopidius (extralimital).6 
cc. Metacarpal spur well-developed, sharp; primaries greenish yellow, margined 
terminally with blackish............2.....0.2000eeeeeee Jacana (p. 7). 
Genus JACANA Brisson, 
Jacana Brisson, Orn., v,1760,121. (Type, by tautonymy, [Jacana] jacana Bris- 
son=FParra jacana Linnzeus.) 
Parra Linnavus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, i, 1766, 259. (Type, P. jacana Linneus.) 
Asarcia¢ Saarpx, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxiv, 1896, 86. (Type, by original desig- 
nation, Parra variabilis Linnzus=Fulica spinosa Linneeus.) 
Rather small Jacanide (wing 110-140 mm.) with a well-developed 
acute metacarpal spur, a conspicuous bifid or trifid frontal shield, 
and with the primaries greenish yellow, margined terminally with 
dusky. 
Bill about as long as or longer than head, somewhat plover-like 
in form, the basal half with upper and lower outlines nearly parallel 
and decidedly approximated, the terminal half enlarged (vertically) 
through decided convexity of culmen and prominence of gonydeal 
angle, the gonys nearly straight, ascending terminally; nostril small, 
longitudinally elliptical, situated about half-way between anterior 
angle of eye and tip of bill; nasal fosse large and relatively broad, 
extending about to base of arched distal portion of culmen; malar 
antia far anterior to obliquely vertical line of loral antia, the mental 
antia extending nearly if not quite as far as anterior end of nostril; 
rhinotheca continued basally over forehead in form of a conspicuous 
frontal shield with free margins, its posterior margin bifid or trifid; 
rictus with a smaller pendent lobe (rudimentary or obsolete in J. 
spinosa). Wing ample but rounded, the three outermost primaries 
longest and nearly equal, and scarcely if at all extending beyond 
tips of longest elongated but broad tertials; inner webs of longest 
primaries slightly contracted terminally. Tail very short, the rec- 
trices very soft, entirely concealed by coverts, 10 in number. Tarsus 
between one-half and one-third as long as wing, compressed, con- 
tinuously transversely scutellate before and behind, the scutella, 
however, sometimes fused into nearly continuous plates; bare por- 
@ Hydralector of authors (not of Wagler, Isis, 1832, 280). Irediparra Mathews, Novit. 
Zool., xviii, 1911, 7 (type, by original designation, Parra gallinacea Temminck). 
(Monotypic.) 
b Metopidius Wagler, Isis, 1832, 279 (type, by subsequent designation, Parra indica 
Latham). (Monotypic.) 
©” Agapxos, Without flesh, lean. (Richmond.) 
