BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA, 15 
JACANA NIGRA (Gmelin). 
BLACK JACANA. 
BLACK-BACKED PHASE. 
Adult (sexes alike).—General color, including axillars and under 
wing-coverts, plain black of a very faint greenish cast, the under 
wing-coverts and posterior under parts sometimes more sooty, 
becoming somewhat more brownish (sometimes warm blackish 
brown or seal brown), occasionally margined with black, on tertials, 
and posterior scapulars; primaries and secondaries dull yellowish 
green (lime green or dull citron green), margined terminally with 
blackish, the blackish margins very narrow and strictly terminal on 
secondaries, broader on primaries, especially the longer ones, on 
which they continue for a greater or less distance along both webs, 
the outermost primary with outer web wholly blackish; bill yellow, 
the basal portion, together with frontal shield and rictal lobes, 
red or orange (in life); iris brown; legs and feet dusky (bluish gray in 
life). 
MAROON-BACKED PHASE. 
Adults (sexes alike) —Back, scapulars, wing-coverts (at least the 
proximal and posterior ones), and tertials, sometimes rump and 
upper tail-coverts also, plain dark purplish brown (maroon to 
diamine brown); head, neck, extreme upper back, and under parts, 
including axillars and under wing-coverts (sometimes rump, upper 
tail-coverts, and distal and anterior wing-coverts also), uniform 
greenish black, the posterior under parts usually somewhat duller 
or more brownish; primaries and secondaries as in the black-backed 
phase. 
Young (both phases).—Pileum plain deep sooty brown or blackish 
brown, bordered laterally by a broad superciliary stripe of dull buffy 
white (sometimes distinctly buff posterior to the eye), extending 
from bill to sides of occiput; a broad stripe extending from eye to 
nape, together with hindneck, extreme upper back, rump, and upper 
tail-coverts, plain black; back, scapulars, wing-coverts, tertials, and 
tail plain grayish brown, with a faint bronzy gloss; primaries and 
secondaries as in adults, but with terminal margins dusky grayish 
brown instead of black, and rather broader; suborbital, rictal and 
malar regions, and entire under parts immaculate buffy white, the 
foreneck and chest sometimes distinctly buffy; frontal shield greatly 
reduced in size, and rictal lobe absent or rudimentary; bill brownish, 
the mandible paler; frontal and rictal lobes pinkish; legs and feet 
dusky grayish or olive. 
Adult male—Wing, 113-128 (118.3); tail, 36-46.5 (39.9); bill, 
from nostril, 15.5-18.5 (17.2); from posterior margin of frontal 
