74 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



In both C. californicus and V. gilvus the longest primary is advanced by one 

 over their eastern representatives, the third and fourth being respectively 

 longest, instead of the second and third; and in both, the first quill is abbre- 

 viated. 



116. Virzo plombecs Coues, nov. sp. 



Sp. Ch First quill spurious ; second equal to or little longer than sixth ; 

 third longest: fourth and fifth successively but little shorter. Entire upper 

 parts, including crown, sides of neck and line from below under eyelid to 

 bill, uniform pure plumbeous or ashy gray, with no shade of olivaceous 

 whatever, except a faint wa?h of 1 his color on the extreme uropygium. 

 Superciliary streak passing from nostrils over and around eye, including 

 under eyelid; two conspicuous bands on wings; outer margins of all 

 secondaries and most primaries ; both margins of all rectrices except median 

 pair ; and entire under parts, pure white. Sides under the wings and inferior 

 wing coverts faintly washed with light sulphury olivaceous. Lores blackish 

 ash. Bill and feet bluish black; farmer very robust. Length 5-75 to 6-10 

 inches and hundredths : extent 9-75 to 10-25 ; wing from carpus 2-90 to 3-10 ; 

 tail 2-50 ; bill -45 ; tarsus -65 ; middle toe and claw -65 ; exposed portion of 

 spurious primary -75 ; a third the length of the second primary. 



Habitat. High central plains to the Pacific. Laramie Peak. Especially 

 abundant in Northern Arizona. By far the commonest Vireo at Fort Whip- 

 ple ; a summer resident ; arrives April 25 ; remains through September. 



Description. (Ho. 40,703, J\ May 17, 1865, Fort Whipple. Type). The 

 bill is large and very robust, being especially deep at the base, where it is 

 compressed and much higher than broad The ridge of the culmen is well 

 defined; its outline very convex, the tip of the bill being much decurved, 

 strongly hooked and notched. The commissure is a little curved ; the gonys 

 slightly convex and ascending. The tarsus is about as long as the middle 

 toe and claw. The tip of the outer claw a little surpasses the base of the 

 middle one; which point the tip of ihe inner claw falls a little short of. 

 The hallux is considerably longer than its claw ; and, with its claw, is about 

 as long as the middle toe without its claw. The wings are long, reaching, 

 when folded, a little beyond the middle of the tail. The third primary is 

 usually longest; but the fourth and fifth are so near it that often there is no 

 perceptible difference. The second is about as long as the sixth, or inter- 

 mediate between it and the fifth. The spurious primary is a third as long as 

 the second. The tail is moderately long ; the rectrices obliquely truncated 

 and a little pointed at their tips. 



The bill is deep bluish black, the posterior half of of the lower mandible 

 often light bluish horn, in marked contrast ; the feet and claws are dusky 

 leaden blue. The mouth is livid bluish white; the eyes reddish brown. 

 The back is plainly plumbeous, like the head ; and only for a brief space on 

 the rump is there a faint tinge of olivaceous ; the upper tail coverts, again, 

 being like the back. A pure white streak begins at the nostril, and runs over 

 the eye as a superciliary line; not extending, however, beyond the eye, but 

 turning down around it at the posterior canthus, where it is continuous with 

 the very extensively white under eyel'd ; this white of the under eyelid being 

 separated at the anterior canthus from the superciliary streak by the blackish 

 ashy lores. The white lower eyelid is separated from the white of the chin 

 by an extension forward of the plumbeous of the side of the neck to the 

 base of the inferior maxilla, where it merges into the dark lores. The lesser 

 wing coverts are like the back. The median and greater are more like the 

 primaries in color ; very broadly tipped and more narrowly edged with 

 pure white. The inner primaries and all the secondaries are edged with 

 white, except towards the apices of the primaries, and towards their bases, 

 where the edging is rather olivaceous than pure white. The inferior aspect 

 of the folded wing shows a white central area, caused by the coalescence of 



[March, 



