NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 379 



the sharp ridge of Unarms. The commissure is about straight ; but the depres- 

 sion of the tip of the upper mandible, which gives the convexity to the cul- 

 men, causes it to be a little decurved. The bill is higher than broad at the 

 base, and so vaulted and arched as to resemble that of Cannabina or even Carpo- 

 dacus rather than of JEgiolhus, It is mostly of a dusky horn color, but the cutting 

 edges, and a great portion of the lower mandible are light bluish horn color. 

 The nasal plutnuli are short, scarcely covering more than the basal third of the 

 bill, and are rather scant. The front, lores and a gular spot are dusky, as in 

 all other species of the genus, the feathers of the former having slightly wavy 

 tips. The pileum is deep crimson. The sides and back of the head and neck, 

 and the upper parts generally to the rump, are blackish brown, scarcely re- 

 lieved by the dull brownish yellow which margins the feathers so very nar- 

 rowly as to give au almost uniform dusky aspect to those parts. The rump, 

 though lighter than the rest of the upper parts, is so merely in consequence of* 

 the fading of the dull yellowish margins of the feathers into white, it being 

 streaked with dusky almost or quite as thickly as the back itself. The wings 

 and tail are deep dusky brown, very narrowly margined with whitish, most 

 conspicuous on the inner secondaries, but even there much narrower than in 

 any other species except fuscescens. The light borders and tips of the median 

 and greater coverts are also reduced to a minimum, being scarcely broader 

 than the margins of the primaries. The under parts are dull white ; the sides 

 of the neck, breast and body, and the under tail coverts thickly streaked with 

 well defined lines of deep dusky; the throat, breast, sides of the head and 

 body, and the rump, suffused with rosy, which deepens into carmine on the 

 breast, and is palest on the rump and sides under the wings. The streaks on 

 the sides of the body extend quite across the lower part of the breast ; but 

 the middle of the belly and the abdomen are unspotted. The feet are brownish 

 black, large and stout, but are not disproportionate to the size of the bird. 

 They have much the same comparative size and relative proportions of tarsus 

 and toe, as in Unarms or fuscescens. The claws are all short, blunt and little 

 curved, even more so than in fuscesce?is, and differing greatly in this respect 

 from canescens, the only species of the genus which equals it in size of body, or 

 in the absolute size of the feet. In the forking of the tail and the proportion 

 of the primaries, it does not differ materially from other species. 



Variations by sex, age, c. The adult female in summer plumage differs in 

 being notably smaller, though the general proportions, and the shape of the 

 bill are preserved. The crimson pileum is greatly restricted. There is only 

 a barely appreciable tinge of rosy on the breast, and none at all on the rump. 

 The breast is instead thickly streaked, like the sides, with well defined dusty 

 lines and spots. 



Immature males, and old males in winter, differ from the adult males in 

 summer, merely in having the rosy or carmine much less vivid and more re- 

 stricted, the feathers of the breast being tipped with whitish. 



Very young birds of both sexes differ, as is usual in this genus, from the 

 adults, in a general rufous or yellowish suffusion, more or less intense, espe- 

 cially about the head and breast ; and in a general want of the distinct defi- 

 nition of the dusky streaks, which have reddish borders, and fade insensibly 

 into whitish. The streaks on the under parts appear to be more numerous, 

 the middle of the belly only being free from them. In a specimen before us, 

 the rufous suffusion is more decided than we have ever seen it even in Unarms, 

 its color being deeper and darker, as we should expect from the much darker 

 colors of the adult birds. Immature specimens have frequently the much re- 

 stricted pileum of a bright coppery rather than deep crimson tint. 



Accidental variations. With but a small series of specimens only nine in 

 number we are unable to present the variations to which the species is sub- 

 ject as fully as might be desired. As far, however, as we can judge from the 

 specimens before us, they are inconsiderable. But even if they were very 



1861.] 



