196 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



[Harporhjnchus] cinereus Coues, Key N. Amer. Birds, 1872, 75 (descr. ; Cape St. 



Lucas). Dubois, Synop. Avium, fasc. VI. 19U1, 417 (Basse-Californie). 

 H.[arporhymhus\ cinereus CouES, Amer. Nat., VIL 1873, o27, 330, 331, fig. 70 



(descr. ; crit.) ; Key N. Amer. Birds, 4tli ed., 1894, 253 (descr. ; Lower Calif.). 



Belding, Proc. U. S. Kat. Mus., Yl. 1S83, 344 (Lower Calif.). Kidgway, 



Man. N. Amer. Birds, 2d ed., 1896, 544 (descr. ; Lower Calif.). 

 Hi/porhi/nchus cinereus (err. typ.) Jaspek, Birds. N. Amer. 1878, 151, pi. 103, fig. 6 



(Cape St. Lucas). 

 Methriopterus cinereus Belding, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., V. 1883, 534 (Cape Region). 



PtiDGWAY, Ibid., VI. 1883, 158, footnote (crit.; S. Lower Calif.). 

 Toxosluiiia cinerea Richmond, Auk, XIX. 1902, 89 (synonymy). 

 Toxostoma cinereurn A. O. U. Comm., Auk, XIX. 1902, 328, no. 709. 



Juvenal plumage : — (Female, No. 14,572, collection of William Brewster, 

 San Jo.«e del Rancho, July 6, 1887). Above ash brown strongly tinged with 

 rust}', the hind back, rump, and upper tail coverts nearly pure rusty ; wings 

 and tail as in the adult, but with all the tail leathers tipped with rusty, the 

 secondaries and greater and niidille wing coverts tipped and edged with rusty 

 fulvous, the primaries with rusty white ; beneath rusty white, the rusty tinge 

 deepest on the al)doinen, crissum, and under tail coverts, the entire under parts, 

 including the chin and abdomen — but not the middle of the throat, anal 

 region, and under tail coverts — thickly spotted with clove brown, these spots 

 largest across the breast, but everywhere much narrower and more numerous 

 than in old birds. 



Sexual variation : — The sexes do not seem to differ in size, color, or 

 markings. 



Seasonal variations : — Autumn birds are much more ashy above and buffy 

 beneath than spring specimens. In some of the former, the wing coverts are 

 tipped with rusty, and the flanks, abdomen, crissum, and under tail coverts 

 with light rusty ochraceous. As the season advances, these colors gradually 

 fade, until by April the upper parts become dull ashy brown, while the abdo- 

 men and crissum are only faintly tinged with rusty. In June the plumage is 

 excessively worn and faded, and the under parts are essentially uniform soiled 

 white. 



Individual variations : — There is much diversity with respect to the spotting 

 of the under parts. In the lighter colored birds the spots are small, rounded, 

 and confined to the breast and the sides of the throat and body. The darker 

 ones have the entire vmder parts — excepting the under tail coverts, crissum, 

 anal region, and a small space on the middle of the throat and abdomen, which 

 are always plain — thickly and coarsely marked with deltoid spots which, on 

 the breast, are sometimes so large and numerous as to be almost confluent. 

 In especially dark specimens the jugulum is usually densely but always finely 

 spotted, and there are often a few fine markings on the chin. The whitish 

 spots on the tail are ordinarily broad and conspicuous on the inner webs of 

 the outer three feathers, extending .50 to .G5 of an inch back from their tips, 

 but in a few specimens they are restricted and, indeed, almost obsolete, being 



