NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 105 



color, and usually predominates, but is sometimes much less in 

 amount than the black; the tail is the same as in the adult. 



a. Normal phase. 



Adult: Above continuous blackish-brown, the feathers usually 

 with somewhat paler borders ; outer scapulars and upper tail-coverts 

 very rarely tinged with rufous the latter usually more or less 

 barred with white or ashy; occipital feathers white beneath the sur- 

 face; primaries plain brownish-black, without trace of bars on outer 

 webs. Throat and chin more or less white, usually in form of a 

 sharply-defined patch; jugulum and breast brown, generally plain, 

 very rarely spotted with whitish, the tint varying from rufous () 

 to the color of the upper parts ( 9 ). Other lower parts varying from 

 white to ochraceous (rarely almost rufous), generally more or less 

 barred, or spotted transversely, with dark brown or rufous very 

 rarely immaculate; crissum usually immaculate, but sometimes 

 with faint and distant bars. Lining of the wing white, sometimes 

 tinged with ochraceous; often immaculate, but generally sparsely 

 (never heavily) spotted with rufous or brown. Under surface of 

 the primaries cinereous (the outer two or three more whitish) 

 sometimes plain, sometimes indistinctly barred with darker. 



% . Breast-patch rufous with darker shaft-streaks. 



9. Breast-patch dark grayish-umber, or blackish-brown (like 

 the back). 



Young: Above brownish-black, with a faint purplish lustre, 

 the feathers all paler on their borders; wing-coverts and scapulars 

 more or less variegated with ochraceous or whitish spotting, this 

 usually very conspicuous on the longer scapulars; upper tail- 

 coverts ochraceous or whitish (their inner webs more brownish), 

 barred with dusky. Tail as in the adult. Ground color of the 

 head, neck, and lower parts, ochraceous, varying in shade from 

 very deep cream-color to nearly white; the feathers of the head, 

 neck, anterior part of the back, and sides of the breast with medial 

 longitudinal tear-shaped spots of brownish-black; lower parts 

 generally spotted, sometimes everywhere, with black, and occasion- 

 ally immaculate. 



