PROCFEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 231 



sertioii, and white tipped and edged. The bill is pure black, as is also 

 the iris. 



Cataloo-ne Xo. SoGOO. May 29, 1879, 9 adult. 



Ground color of head, neck, breast, sides, flanks, and upper tail-cov- 

 erts light brown-ochre, paler and much less rusty than in corresponding 

 plumage of rupestris. The upper parts irregularly barred with black. 

 The most of the feathers tipped with a crescentric bar of white, the 

 black bar immediately preceding which is much broader than the others. 

 The fore part of the back is irregularly spotted with black. Crown 

 spotted with black, the feathers tipped with yellowish-white. Jugulum 

 and breast more sparsely but regularly barred with black. The sides 

 and abdomen similarly, but more broadly, barred with black and light 

 yellowish-brown. But few feathers of white occur on the breast and 

 abdomen. The under tail-coverts are very distinctly barred with black 

 and light yellowish-brown, the tips of the upper tail-coverts and tail 

 have a narrow band of pure white. The wings white, the dusky shaft 

 extending not quite to the tips. The tarsus and toes are but slightly 

 feathered. The claws black, with white edge and tips. The bill and 

 iris black. 



Example No. 85599 is similar. 



When I first obtanied these birds I was struck with the api^arent 

 greater size and also the difterence in the shape of the bill and claws. 

 These birds frequent the low lands, where, amongst tlie rank grasses 

 and weeds, a nest, com])osed of gTasses and other plants, is loosely ar- 

 ranged. The number of eggs reaches as high as seventeen, though I 

 never found more than fifteen in a single nest. The eggs are much 

 darker in color than those of L. alhus and but little inferior in size. I 

 had a number of eggs of this bird, but they were broken in transitu. 



The following tables of measurements of specimens in the National 

 Museum collection will serve to show the differences of size and propor- 

 tions which, to a certain degree, distinguish the several races of this 

 species; 



