470 BIBDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Adult female.? (No. 99,969,11. S. Nat. Mus., Gainesville. Texas: G. H. Ragsdale). Head 

 and neck above white, each feather marked with a central guttate or acute-ovate spot of 

 dusky brown, the whole under surface of the plumage, however, pure white. Back and 

 scapulars mixed brownish gray, dusky brown, and white, in nearly equal proportion, the 

 whole underlying portion of the feathers white; lesser and middle wing-coverts nearly 

 uniform dusky brown, with a faint purplish gloss; greater coverts grayish brown, trans- 

 versely spotted, or irregularly barred, with dusky, the concealed basal portion white; 

 secondaries similar, but darker terminally, and narrowly tipped with white; primaries 

 grayish brown, darker toward ends, indistinctly mottled with darker or lighter, the 

 shorter quills with decidedly, though not abruptly, paler tips. Upper tail-coverts white, 

 marked with an irregular subterminal blotch of dusky brown (continued, irregularly, 

 along the shaft), the inner webs of some of them stained with ochraceous. Tail white, 

 the outer webs of all the feathers confusedly mottled, chiefly near the edges, with brown- 

 ish gray, these mottlings more coalesced, and also darker in color, near the end of the 

 feathers, so as to suggest a poorly denned subterminal darker band; inner webs of all 

 the rectrices, also the shafts, entirely white. Head, neck, and entire lower parts white, 

 the first finely streaked laterally with dusky, the throat more broadly streaked, and from 

 the rictus backward a broad stripe of dusky, formed of coalesced guttate streaks or spots, 

 which at the lower part of the throat extend across, forming a narrow interrupted band; 

 sides of jugulum marked with guttate spots of dusky brown; flanks and lower part of 

 abdomen marked with guttate and lanceolate spots or streaks of very dark brown; front 

 and inner sides of tibise sparsely and irregularly marked with clear grayish brown; 

 whole breast, anal region, and crissum, immaculate. Lining of wing white, sparsely 

 and irregularly spotted with dusky, thus forming a patch on the anterior under wing- 

 coverts; under surface of primaries, anterior to their emargination, faintly, sparsely, 

 and irregularly mottled with grayish. Wing, 16.25; tail, 10.00; culrnen, 1.10; tarsus.2.85, 

 the bare portion in front 1.75; middle toe, 1.75. 



&. Dark phase. 



Adult m a IP (Lawrence, Kansas. October, 1871: in collection of Kansas University) . 

 General color deep, almost carbonaceous, black, showing much exposed white on the 

 head, neck, and breast, all the feathers of which are snowy white beneath the surface, 

 the black being merely in the form of tear-shaped spots on the terminal portion of the 

 feather; chin, lores, and front pure white ; upper parts in general, the posterior lower 

 parts, and the lining of the wing, with the black unbroken, but all the feathers except 

 the under wing-covertsmore or less spotted with white beneath the surface, on a gray- 

 ish ground, these spots being usually arranged in pairs on each side of the shaft, on the 

 flanks; tail-coverts, above and below, spotted irregularly with bright rufous, in nearly 

 equal amount with the black and white. Alulae, primary coverts, and primaries, with 

 quadrate, spots of plumbeous on their outer webs, forming transverse bands; under sur- 

 face of primaries plumbeous gray except at ends, but much broken by coarse marbling 

 of white, this prevailing anteriorly, where it is much confused, but posteriorly about 

 equal with the grayish, and exhibiting a tendency to form quadrate spots. Tail, with the 

 ground color white, but this nearly hidden on the upper surface by a longitudinal mot- 

 tling of dark and light ashy, this growing more uniform terminally, where it becomes 

 slightly suffused with reddish and crossed by a subterminal, broad, but broken and 

 irregular, band of black, the tip again very narrowly grayish and reddish. 



Wing formula, 4, 3,5-2,6; 1=10. Wing, 15.00; tail, 8.80; culmen, 1.00; tarsus, 2.75; mid- 

 dle toe, 1.50; lateral toes equal. Plumage of flanks, tibiae, and crissum remarkably 

 lengthened and lax, the latter reaching within two inches of the tip of the tail, and the 

 tibial plumes reaching to the base of the toes. 



Adult female (No. 6,851, Bio Grande, lat. 32: Dr. T. C. Henry. U. S. A.). Whole plum- 

 age purplish black, or chocolate-black, with a purplish lustre; feathers everywhere pure 

 white at bases, this exposed, however, only on the occiput, or where the feathers are dis- 

 arranged. Forehead, lores, and chin white. Secondaries and primaries more brown than 

 other portions, crossed by distinct bands of; black, about six on the secondaries. Whole 



