PARRID.E — THE JACANAS — PARRA. 
177 
faint purple gloss, brightest or most rufescent on the wings, more purplish on the hack, rump, 
and upper tail-coverts, and of a rich dark purplish-maroon shade on the breast and sides ; anal 
region, tibiae, and crissum duller and more grayish. Remiges (except the tertials) pale yellowish 
pea-green, bordered terminally with dull dusky, this border very narrow, and strictly terminal on 
the secondaries, but broader, and involving more or less of both edges of the quills on the primaries, 
where it increases in extent to the outer quill, which has the entire outer web blackish ; alulae and 
primary coverts dull blackish. Tail-feathers uniform rich chestnut. “ Iris dark brown ; bill, alar 
spurs, and frontal leaf, bright yellow ; upper base of bill bluish white, the space between it and 
the nasal leaf bright carmine ; feet greenish.” 1 
Young : Frontal leaf rudimentary. Pileum grayish brown, bordered on each side by a wide 
and conspicuous superciliary stripe of buffy white, extending to the occiput ; below this stripe, 
another narrower one of black or dusky, beginning at the posterior angle of the eye and extending 
along the upper edge of the auriculars to the nape, which is also of this color ; remainder of the 
head, with the entire lower parts, except the sides, continuous buffy white, more strongly tinged 
with bull' across the jugulum. Upper parts in general (except the remiges) light grayish brown, 
the feathers bordered terminally with rusty buff in the younger stage, but uniform in older indi- 
viduals ; rump more or less tinged with chestnut. Sides and lining of the wing dusky black, but 
in older examples more or less tinged with chestnut. Remiges as in the adult ; rectrices grayish 
brown. 
The downy young is unknown, or at least I have been unable to find any description. 
In the considerable series of specimens of this species contained in the collection of the National 
Museum, notable variations in size and proportions occur among specimens of the same age and 
sex, but apparently without regard to locality. Cuban specimens do not differ in the least, so far 
as I can see, from Mexican and Central American examples. 
The present species of Jacana was met with by Dr. James C. Merrill near Fort 
Brown, in Southeastern Texas, early in August, 1876. He saw it on two occa- 
sions, on the first of which he had not the means of procuring a specimen, and on the 
second was unable to obtain the bird he had shot. Very little is known as to the 
manners and habits of this peculiar family. In its characteristics it seems to com- 
bine very many of the characteristics of the Bails and the Plovers ; and it may be 
that its manner of life also partakes of the habits of the two forms so distinct from 
each other. This species is a common bird of Mexico, probably of a small portion of 
Northern South America, Central America to Panama, and Cuba, and perhaps other 
West India Islands. 
This species was taken by Sumichrast in Southwestern Mexico, at Santa Efigenia 
and Zonatepec, in March and April. A set of four eggs of this species, from Cuba, 
measure 1.22 by .98; 1.20 by 1.00; 1.24 by 1.00; 1.15 by .94. They are of a 
rounded oval shape, have a ground color of bright drab, and are strikingly marbled 
over the entire surface with an intersecting net-work of black or very dark-brown 
waving stripes, blotches, and lines. These markings curve and wind in various ways, 
always in rounded, never in angular, turns, and the eggs present a very peculiar, un- 
mistakable, and characteristic appearance. 
1 Sumichrast, MS ficlc Lawr., Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 4, 1876, p. 50. 
vol. i. — 23 
