274 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
When alive this bird is readily distinguished by its large size, 
very dark color, and loud “peep” much like the cry of a lost 
chicken. 
Sericotes holosericeus (Linn.). Green-throated Hum¬ 
mingbird; Large Doctor-bird. — I find I can match Gould’s 
plates of S. holosericeus and S. chlorolaemus with specimens 
obtained on Barbados. The extent of the blue on the lower breast 
is a very variable character, and those birds in which it tends to 
shade into the green of the throat are apparently immature. 
Females usually, if not always, have longer bills than the males, 
and the blue on the breast is generally more restricted, tending to 
form a rhombic spot, and is not quite so sharply cut off from the 
green as in the males. I have examined a large series of this bird 
from all points in its range, and cannot see the slightest ground for 
subdividing it. The range of individual variation, as brought out 
by my series of twenty-eight examples from Barbados, is very great. 
This hummingbird is common everywhere on Barbados. On St. 
Vincent and Grenada it is confined to the lower districts near the 
seacoast, and is not abundant, being, in fact, rather rare on the 
former island. 
Among the Grenadines it is local. On Bequia I found it common 
in the town, and about the Spring estate. On Canouan only one 
was met with. At Union Island there were usually one or two to 
be found about some cedars behind the town of Ashton, and about 
another clump, midway between Ashton and Clifton. Two were 
seen on the fiat land near Clifton Bay. 
On Carriacou it was very common about the cedar trees near 
Hillsborough on the road to Harvey Vale, and was often seen at 
other points. I did not meet with it on the other keys. As a gen¬ 
eral rule in the Grenadines, wherever cedar trees are in blossom, one 
is apt to see this bird. 
This is one of the few of the smaller West Indian birds I have 
seen at sea. I have met with it over the open water between cer¬ 
tain of the Grenadines, and on September 23, 1904, while going 
from Montserrat to Antigua one of these birds appeared when we 
were about a third of the way across, and stayed about the boat for 
some time. 
On August 27, 1903, I obtained at Barbados a female of this 
species with the throat white. 
