In all the species from the Greater Antilles and the portion of Continental America west and directly south of this group, there is a distinct external white patch at base of quills; while this disappears in the species of the Lesser Antilles and eastern South America, or is only faintly traceable. Again, in the species of the Lesser Antilles, with the disappearance of the white wing-patch, the greater and middle wing-coverts show a faint edging of lighter, by which, as well as by the darker back, they are distinguished from their South American allies.

The shape of the white patch at base of the quills on the outer web furnishes, in combination with the color of the throat, excellent and permanent specific characters. This in the Jamaican, Haytien, and Bahaman forms is elongated, extending gradually and uniformly behind to the outer edge of the quill, while in those of Porto Rico, St. Thomas, Cozumel, and the South American species, where it exists, the posterior outline is nearly transverse, and only running out a little along outer web.

As a general rule South American species have shorter tails than the West Indian.

It is a nice question what are really species in this genus, and what merely races or varieties; but it would probably be not far from correct to assume that the various forms described are simply modifications of one primitive species, produced by geographical distribution and external physical conditions. In the following diagnosis I shall treat all the varieties as occupying the same rank, without attempting any discrimination. Although but one of these belongs to the United States, and that as a straggler from the Bahamas, I give the table of the whole, to show the interesting relationship between them.

Common Characters. Above dusky-olive or blackish; the rump olivaceous or yellowish; the head and cheeks always black, and sometimes darker than back. Chin and throat ashy or black. Rest of under part yellow, duller behind. A broad white stripe from bill above eye to nape. A white patch at base of primaries; generally visible externally, sometimes concealed. Lateral tail-feathers tipped with white. Bill black; legs dusky.

A. Head uniform in color with rest of upper parts; dark sooty-brown or blackish. Both webs of outer tail-feather tipped with white (except in luteola). All West Indian except luteola, which, however, occurs in Tobago and Trinidad, and generally belongs to the shores of the Carribean Sea.

1. A distinct and conspicuous external white patch at base of primaries. Wing-coverts not margined with paler.

Throat very dark ash, not contrasting or appreciably different from blackish of cheeks.

1. A distinct external white wing-patch at base of primaries.

Bill: Length from forehead, .62; from nostril, .41; along gape, .59; depth at base, .17. Legs: Tarsus, .75; middle toe and claw, .58; claw alone, .17; hind toe and claw, .45; claw alone, .20.

Hab. Bahamas and Keys of southeast coast of Florida.

A specimen from the Florida Keys (10,367) is rather darker than those from the Bahamas, the white less extended, and not quite reaching the shafts in the outer quills.

Habits. This species, belonging properly to the Bahaman group of the West Indian Islands, was found at Indian Key, Fla., January 31, 1858, by Mr. Würdemann, where it appeared to be not at all rare. Nothing is known of its habits, but they are doubtless nearly the same as those of the allied species. The C. flaveola is known in Jamaica as the Banana Quit, Honey-Sucker, and Black and Yellow Creeper. According to the description of them given by Mr. Gosse, these birds, scarcely larger than the Humming-Birds, are often seen in company with them, probing the flowers for similar purposes, but in a very different manner. Instead of hovering like the Humming-Bird in front of the blossom, for which its short wings would be incompetent, these birds alight on the tree and proceed in a very business-like manner. Hopping from twig to twig in an active manner, they carefully examine each blossom. In doing this they throw their bodies into a variety of positions, often clinging by the feet with the back downwards, the better to reach the interior of a blossom with their curved beaks and peculiar tongue. The objects of these researches are the small insects which are always found in the interior of flowers. This bird is unsuspecting and familiar, and very freely resorts to the blossoming shrubs of the gardens and yards. Mr. Gosse mentions, in evidence of this familiarity, that a large moringa-tree under his window, as he was writing, and which all through the year was profusely set with fragrant blossoms, and was a favorite resort of these birds, was being carefully scrutinized by two active little Creepers. Although within a few feet of his window, they pursued their examinations, perfectly undisturbed by his looking on. As they move about they utter a soft sibilant note.

These Creepers incubate during the months of May, June, and July. On the 4th of May, Mr. Gosse observed one with a bit of “silk-cotton” in her beak, and found the skeleton of the nest just commenced in a bush of the Lantana camara. It was evidently to be of dome shape, and so far had been constructed entirely of silk-cotton. The completed nests are made in the form of a globe, with a small opening below the side. The walls are very thick, composed of dry grasses intermixed irregularly with the down of asclepias. One of these nests was fixed between the twigs of a branch of a Bauhinia projecting over a highway. Another, found towards the end of June, was built in a bush of Lantana, and of the same structure. It contained two eggs, greenish-white, thickly but indefinitely dashed with reddish at the larger end. Mr. Gosse quotes a Mr. Robinson as giving their dimensions at .44 by .31 of an inch, while his own specimens are much larger than this, measuring .63 by nearly .50. Two eggs of C. flaveola, from Jamaica, in my cabinet, measure, .68 by .51 and .68 by .49 of an inch. In one the ground is a dull white, so generally and thickly covered with minute but confluent dots of reddish-brown as to impart a pinkish tinge to the whole egg. In the other the ground is a dull white, sparingly marked with blotches of brown over about three fourths of its surface, but at the larger end covered with a crown of larger and confluent blotches of subdued purple and dark umber, intermingled with a few lines of a darker hue, almost black.

Two eggs of G. newtoni, from St. Croix, are of a more rounded-oval shape, and measure .69 by .45 and .65 by .44 of an inch. They have a dull white ground, but this is so uniformly and generally covered with confluent reddish-brown markings as to be nowhere very distinct.

The St. Croix species is called the Sugar-Bird in that island, from its habit of entering the curing-houses, through the barred windows, probably attracted thither by the swarms of flies. It is a very familiar species, haunting gardens, and often entering houses, and never manifesting any alarm. It keeps in pairs, and breeds from March to August. Mr. Newton states that it builds a domed and often pensile nest, with a small porch, or pent-house roof, over the entrance, generally at the extremity of a leafy bough. The nest is generally very untidy on the outside, and is composed of coarse grass and cotton, with feathers on the inside. It deposits its eggs before the completion of the nest, “rather to the discomfiture of the oölogist, who delays inserting his finger into the structure while he sees one or both of the birds busy with a tuft of grass or cotton in their bills, until at last he finds their eggs already hatched.” Mr. Newton observed one instance in which two broods were reared in the same nest, with only an interval of ten days between the time the young left it and the laying of an egg.