356 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



"This is the first island in which I saw this bird, unless the black- 

 bird of ( rrenada and the Grenadines be the same. It is abundant in 

 the Jardin des Plantes and very numerous at Morne Eonge. Its notes 

 arc entirely different front the 'Bequia sweet' of the Grenadines; but 

 that may be owing to the difference in season. The savannas of this 

 high region contain many in parties of from to 5. 



"At Trois Islets they were in abundance and there I got many, show 

 ing the different changes in plumage from young to adult. There they 

 built their nests in a tall silk-cotton tree. They love the fronds of the 

 palm as a retreat, doubtless feeding upon the berries that hang beneath 

 the overarching boat-shaped spathes in large bunches. Their cry is not 

 like those of the Grenadines, nor like that of the north, the Q. rcrsi 

 color — but has notes in it reminding me of both. Gregarious.' 1 



I have followed Mr. Sclater in referring this bird to Mr. Swainson's 

 species; he says (P. Z. S. for 1874, p. 175): "In order to avoid giving it 

 a fresh name I call it Q. inflexirostris, Sw., though the bill certainly doea 

 not quite agree with Swainson's figure (An. in Menag. p. 300)." The 

 specimens before me differ from Sw-ainson's figure of the bill spoken of 

 above in being apparently shorter and stouter. Swainson says, 1. c. 

 "Size and colour precisely like Q. lugubris; but the great difference in 

 their bills induces me to consider them quite distinct. In this the bil 

 is longer and much more slender," &c. 



A comparison with Q. lugubris shows the present bird to closely re 

 semble it in coloration: it is, however, somewhat larger, the bill longer 

 and more curved, but proportionately not more slender. 



Mr. Cassin in his Study of the Icteridce (Proc. of Acad. Nat. Sci. of 

 Phila. 18C6, p. 107) refers a specimen in the Museum of the Academy to 

 Q. inflexirostris, Sw.; he says: "One specimen only in the Acad. Mus. 

 seems to be this species, but which is, unfortunately, without label 

 stating locality. The bill is exactly the length and otherwise very 

 nearly as given by Mr. Swainson as cited above, though somewhat 

 thicker. It is the only specimen that I have ever seen in which the com- 

 missure is an uninterrupted curve or arc of a circle, — not straight nor 

 sinuated as in all other species known to me (except Q. nigcr of St. 

 Domingo) and described in this memoir." 



The dimensions given by Mr. Cassin are about the same as those ob 

 specimens from Martinique, but the bills differ; he gives, "chord of up- 

 per mandible about one and four tilth inches." in the present bird it 

 measures but one and a quarter inches'. 



A specimen of Q. niger from St. Domingo, presented by Prof. Gabb, isj 

 of about the same size, and differs in coloration only in having the breast 

 and abdomen without lustre — the bills though are very different, that 

 of Qi nigcr is wider at the base, longer, straighter, and narrower at the 

 end; the commissure is nearly straight, and the ridge of the upper man- 

 dible is perceptibly flattened. The locality of Mr. Swain sons type is 

 unknown, and possibly it may not he the Antillian species referred to 



