NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 153 



tuberance at the symphysis acute, if not very prominent. The commissure 

 is, as usual, very sinuate. The nasal case is contained nearly four times in 

 the length of the culmen ; broad, depressed, its dorsal outline straight, its 

 apex very obliquely truncated, its orifice subcircular, each naris oval ; the 

 septum of considerable thickness, and coming forward to the very end of the 

 ease. The frontal feathers do not extend at all forward on the base of the 

 culmen, but embrace the sides of the bill as extensively as they do its b.ise 

 above ; and thence they slope very rapidly backwards, making a considerable 

 angle just above the edge of the commissure. 



The wings are sufficiently elongated to extend, when folded, a little beyond 

 the end of the tail, which is, itself, rather longer than in most species of this 

 group. The second primary is nearly as long as the first ; the rtst are 

 rapidly graduated. 



1 he tail is so long as to be only contained exactly twice in the length of 

 the wing from the carpus, and the graduation of the lateral feathers is about 

 as great as in hcesitata, (greater than in mollis,) though the median pair of 

 rectrices are not specially produced. The upper tail covirts fall far short of 

 the end of the tail : the under ones reach quite to it. 



The legs are short and slender ; the tibiae bare for but a very brief space. 

 The tarsi are considerably shorter than the middle toe without its claw, and 

 about equal to the inner ; quite slender, moderately compressed, with the 

 ordinary rectifications. The tip of the inner lateral claw just reaches the 

 base of the middle one. The middle and outer toes are of equal length, but 

 the claw of the latter is much shorter than that of the former : which last is 

 but very slightly dilated on its inner edge. All the claws are small, slender 

 and weak, but still much curved and acute. The hallux is of the ordinary 

 size and shape. 



Dimensions. Chord of culmen 1-00; height of bill at base -35 to *40. 

 Length of nasal case "25. Wing 8-50 to 9-00 ; the distance from end of 

 longest secondary to tip of first primary in the folded wing 2 - 75. Tail 3 - 75 

 to 4-25; graduation 1-00 to 1-50. Tarsus 1-10; outer toe and claw 1-25; 

 inner do. 1-12, middle do. 1-33. From upper tail coverts to end of 

 tail 1-40. 



Color. Adult. Above blackish cinereous. On the crown of the head and 

 its sides to a little below and before the eye, and on the nape the color tends 

 more towards sooty brownish than to cinereous ; but on the neck behind 

 this color merges insensibly into the quite pure deep cinereous, which occu- 

 pies the middle dorsal region, the interscapulars, and some of the tertials. 

 The rump is darker and more like the crown ; the upper tail coverts again 

 being cinereous, if anything a little lighter than the back tending to pure 

 grayish instead of dusky cinereous. The superior surface of the tail is 

 plumbeous blackish, lightest and most cinereous basally. Inferiorly the tail 

 is lighter colored than on its upper surface ; the lateral rectrices particularly 

 being light plumbeous gray, almost whitish basally. The shafts of the 

 feathers are above brown, below white, except at their extremities. The 

 superior wing coverts and all the primaries and secondaries are brownish or 

 fuliginous black ; deepest along the edges of the wings, and outer borders 

 and tips of the quill feathers. The inner vanes of the primaries are light 

 grayish fuliginous, becoming grayish white towards their bases ; but the 

 transition is quite gradual. The shafts are black above, brownish beneath. 

 All the under wing coverts are pure white, except one row, the smallest, just 

 along the edge of the ulna and metacarpus ; producing a broad uninterrupted 

 white area. On the radial edge of the antibrachium there is a narrow but 

 well-defined white line:* visible from both upper and under aspects of the 



* This is very erroneously called a " liuea humeralis" by Mr. Gould in one place; nnd spoken 

 of as "a line along the inner edg of the shoulder" in another. We very often find the carpal 

 joint most carelessly and incorrectly spoken of as the " shoulder." 



1866.] 



