454 



BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



mandible dusky terminally, pale basally (pale bluish gray in life), iris 

 brown; legs and feet dusky (in dried skins). 



Adults ill autumn." — Similar to the spring and summer plumage, 

 but brown of the head and neck much darker and more uniform (vary- 

 ing in hue from a color intermediate between raw umber and burnt 

 umber to sepia), and under parts, except chin, sides, and flanks, more 

 strongh' bufl^y. 



Young. — Essentially like adults, but coloration duller, with the 

 brown of head and neck much grayer or replaced by gray, the white 

 spot on center of hindneck indistinct or obsolete, gray of back, etc., 

 less bluish, greater wing-coverts edged or washed with pale brownish 

 buff, and gray of sides and flanks replaced b}' dull brownish buff. 



Adtilt male.— Length (skins), 89.5-103 (9T.3); wing, 60-69 (63.7); 

 tail, 28. 5-34. 6 (30.8); culmen, 13-16 (14.5); tarsus, 14-16 (14.7); mid- 

 dle toe, 10-12 (11.2).^ 



Adult female.— Lengih. (skins), 90.5-104 (97.8); wing, 58.5-67.5 

 (63.3); tail, 28-33.5 (31); culmen 13-16 (14.3); tarsus, 13-15.5 (14.8); 

 middle toe, 10.5-12 (11.3). * 



Coast pine belt of southeastern United States, from southern Mary- 

 land (St. Mary Count}^) and southern Delaware to Florida and eastern 



« This plumage is sometimes retained as late as December, but is at its best in Sep- 

 tember. It is assumed in latter part of July (at least in Maryland and Virginia) and 

 fades rather raj^idly, most examples taken in December being nearly, if not quite, 

 like those taken in late winter to early summer. 



^ Twenty specimens. 



Florida specimens compare in average measurements with those from Maryland, 

 Virginia, and North Carolina, as follows: 



So far as I am able to discern, there is no difference in coloration. In the Florida 

 series examiued (consisting of 66 adults) there are none obtained earlier in the sea- 

 son than December, yet among them are two (one from Fort Myers, December 9, 

 the other from Kissimmee, January 26) which have the brown of the head exactly 

 as dark as in September birds from Maryland and Virginia, the remainder being abso- 

 lutely identical in coloration, so far as I am able to see, with late winter to summer 

 birds from the last-mentioned States. 



Specimens from Texas (Jasper, Tyler, and Montgomery counties) are quite identi- 

 cal in coloration with those from Maryland. 



