BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 9 
JACANA SPINOSA SPINOSA (Linneus). 
CENTRAL AMERICAN JACANA. 
Adults (sexes alike).—Head, neck, chest, and extreme upper back 
uniform black, with a faint greenish gloss; back, scapulars, tertials, 
and wing-coverts plain bay or maroon, the rump, upper tail-coverts, 
and tail darker and more purplish (dark maroon), the middle rectrices 
tipped with blackish; under parts of body dull maroon laterally, 
usually darker and duller (sometimes decidedly dusky) medially, 
passing into grayish brown or sooty brown on lower abdomen, anal 
region, and anterior under tail-coverts, the longer (posterior) under 
tail-coverts darker, more or less tinged with maroon; axillars and 
under wing-coverts uniform maroon, the coverts along edge of wing 
(broadly) dark purplish brown or blackish maroon; remiges (except 
tertials) dull greenish yellow or yellowish green (nearest lime green), 
margined terminally with black, most broadly on longer primaries; bill 
(in life) yellow, the basal portion of maxilla whitish, and above this a 
red or dusky space at base of frontal shield, the latter also yellow; iris 
dark brown (sometimes yellow ?); legs and feet greenish (in life). 
Young.—Frontal shield rudimentary. Pileum grayish brown, 
bordered laterally by a broad superciliary stripe of buffy white, 
extending from base of maxilla to occiput; beneath the posterior 
portion of this a narrow postocular stripe of black or dusky, extending 
from posterior angle of eye, along upper edge of auricular region, to 
nape, which is also of the same color; general color of upper parts 
(except remiges) light grayish brown, the feathers margined terminally 
with buff in younger stages, the rump more or less tinged with 
chestnut; sides of head, below dusky postocular stripe, and under 
parts (except sides) buffy white or very pale buff, more strongly tinged 
with buff on chest; sides, axillars, and under wing-coverts plain 
blackish or fuscous, more or less tinged with chestnut in older indi- 
viduals; primaries and secondaries as in adults; tail grayish brown. 
Downy young.—“Covered with down of a remarkable pattern. 
The crown orange tawny; the nape and hind neck dusky black; 
the mantle and back orange tawny, the back a little the darker and 
having a line of black on each side of the central tract, this beg 
followed by a broad band ‘of ochreous buff down the sides of the 
back, this being again inclosed by a broad black band, which joins 
at the tail; wings orange tawny, the manus white; a narrow frontal 
line, sides of face and under surface covered with white down; a 
black line extending from behind the eye and joining the black of the . 
hind neck; the downy wing with black edgings and a zigzag line of 
black on the flanks, and the upper part of the thighs also black.” ¢ 
@ Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxiv, 1896, 87. 
