BIKDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 93 



Nidifi cation. — Nest variously situated (usually in trees), rather 

 bulky, open above, composed exteriorly of dried grass-stems, rootlets, 

 etc., plastered inside with mud*^ and lined with finer grass-stems, etc. ; 

 eggs bluish green or greenish blue, more or less deep, sometimes 

 immaculate, sometimes (in most species) speckled or spotted with 

 brown. 



Range. — Nearly cosmopolitan (wanting only in Australia, New 

 Zealand, Polynesia, Galapagos Archipelago, and West Indies except 

 Jamaica, St. Vincent, and Grenada); numerously represented in 

 continental tropical America. (As in the case of Turdus, the number 

 of species of this genus is indefinite, depending on the limits assigned 

 to the group.) 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF PLANESTICUS. 



a. Phimage unspotted (but throat sometimes streaked). (Adults.) 

 b. Under tail-coverts at least partly white, 

 c. Under tail-coverts white medially or terminally, gray or brown laterally or 

 basally (or both). 

 d. Under tail-coverts brownish gray or dusky with a median streak or narrow 

 stripe of white; a more or less distinct rufescent or ochraceous collar across 



hindneck. (Highlands of Guatemala.) Planesticus rufitorques (p. 96) 



dd. Under tail-coverts chiefly white for exposed portion. 



e. Whole throat white, streaked with blackish, dusky, or dark brown. 

 /. No white patch on lower tliroat; sides and flanks (usually breast also) 

 clear cinnamon-rufous, buff, or brownish cinnamon. 

 g. Orl)ital region partly white; back and wing-coverts brownish gray, 

 concolor with rest of upper parts. 

 h. Head more dusky than rest of upper parts (black or blackish in adult 

 males); white superciliary stripe interrupted above eye; under 

 wing-coverts, breast, etc., tawny-ochraceous, cinnamon-rufous, or 

 almost chestnut-rufous. {Planesticus migratorius.) 

 i. Lateral rectrices with a white spot at tip of inner web. 

 j. Larger (wing averaging more than 134 in male, more than 128 in 

 female); coloration darker and brighter. (Northern and 

 eastern ^orth America, breeding southward to New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, etc., and in Allegheny Mts. to 



North Carolina.) Planesticus migratorius migratorius (p. 97) 



jj. Smaller (wing averaging about 125 in male, 122 in female); 

 coloration paler and duller. (Southeastern United States, 

 breeding from middle districts of North and South Carolina, 

 Tennessee, etc., to Maryland and southern Illinois.) 



Planesticus migratorius achrusterus (p. 100) 

 ii. Lateral rectrices without white spot at tip of inner web. (Western 

 North America and highlands of Mexico.) 



Planesticus migratorius propinquus (p. 101) 

 hh. Head brownish gray, concolor with rest of upper parts; white 

 superciliary stripe continuous; under wing-coverts, breast, etc., 

 clear buff. (Southern extremity of Lower California.) 



Planesticus confinis (p. 103) 



a At least in the more northern species. 



