NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 115 



Melanistic Phase. 



Adult, = B. insignatus, Cassin, and B. fuliginosus, Sclater. 

 Male (No. 12, 117, Mazatlan, Mexico; Colonel Abert) : Entirely 

 fuliginous-black, darkest on head and back; no white on forehead. 

 Tail cinereous-umber, crossed with seven very regular and con- 

 tinuous bands of black, the subterrainal one of which is broadest. 

 Lower tail-coverts, and larger under wing-coverts, with transverse 

 bands of dull white ; lining of the wing unvaried black ; under 

 surface of primaries silvery-white, that portion beyond their 

 emargination black, the whitish portion crossed by distant, very 

 indistinct transverse bars. Third quill longest ; fourth and fifth 

 scarcely shorter, and nearly equal; second equal to sixth; first 

 shorter than eighth. Tail even; scutellre of the tarsus very faintly 

 defined, or, in fact, scarcely detectable (probabty accidental). 

 Wing, 13.00; tail, 1.00; tarsus, 1.95; middle toe, 1.55. 



Male (22,567, Onion River; R. McFarlane) : Entirely brownish- 

 black, whole under surface of wings included; lower tail-coverts 

 equally barred with white and black. Tail blackish-slate, narrowly 

 paler at the tip, and crossed with numerous oblique bars of dusky 

 black ; upper tail-coverts barred obsoletely with lighter slaty- 

 brown. Wing, 15.00; tail, 8.00; tarsus, 2.20; middle toe, 1.50. 

 Fourth quill longest; third, next; second, shorter than fifth ; first, 

 slightly shorter than eighth. 



Female (12,927, Utah Valley, July; C. S. McCarthy): Simi- 

 lar; lower tail-coverts white, tinged with rusty, and barred with 

 brown ; tibiae tinged with chestnut. Wing, 16.50 ; tail, 8.80 ; 

 tarsus, 2.60 ; middle toe, 1.65. Third and fourth quills equal and 

 longest ; third shorter than fifth ; first equal to eighth. 



The melanistic specimen from Mazatlan (No. 12,117) described 

 above agrees perfectly with Mr. Selater's excellent figure of his 

 B. fuliginosus above cited, and the onby discrepancy in the de- 

 scription is in the measurements, those given for the B. fuligi- 

 nosus being, wing, 12.00, tail, 6.50, and tarsus, 2.60. The differ- 

 ence in the length of the wing is certainly not great, while the 

 discrepancy as regards the length of the tarsus it is probable 

 results from a different mode of measurement. 



Material examined. National Musuem, 88 specimens ; Museum 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 3 ; of the 

 Boston Society Natural History, 1 ; of the Museum of Compara- 



