258 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATI0:NAL MUSEUM. 



Genus OROSCOPTES Baird. 



Oroscoptcs Baird, Rep. Pacitic II. R. Surv., ix, 1858, 346. (Type, Orpfitus moti- 



tanus Townsend.) 

 Oreoscoptcs (emendation) Baird, Cat. N. Am. Birds, 1859, no. 225; Review Am. 



Birds, 1864,42. 



Rather small Mimichv (length about 200 mm.) with long and pointed 

 wing (outermost primary much less than half as long as ninth, the 

 latter equal to or longer than fifth, the eighth and seventh longest) ; 

 bill much shorter than head; tail shorter than wing, slightly rounded; 

 upper parts brownish gray or grayish brown, under parts whitish, con- 

 spicuously streaked with dusky; lateral rectrices tipped with white, 

 and wings with whitish and pale grayish edgings. 



Bill much shorter than head (shorter than middle toe without claw), 

 rather slender, its depth at frontal aiitise about equal to its width at 

 same point, and equal to more than one-third the distance from nostril 

 to tip of maxilla; exposed culmen shorter than middle toe withovit 

 claw, nearly straight basally, gradually curved terminally; goiiys 

 straight; maxillary tomiuni faintly but decidedly concave in middle 

 portion, faintly notched subterminally. Nostril oval or elliptical, posi- 

 teriorly in contact with feathering of frontal antiae, overhung hj 

 narrow membrane. Rictal bristles distinct, though few and weak. 

 Wing rather long and pointed, the longest primaries exceeding longest 

 secondaries by length of middle toe (without claw), or more; outer- 

 most (tenth) primar}^ small and narrow, much less than half as long as 

 ninth, the latter equal to or longer than fifth; eighth or eighth and 

 seventh primaries longest. Tail slightly but decidedly shorter than 

 wing, slightly rounded, the graduation less than distance from nostril 

 to tip of maxilla. Tarsus rather long (less than one-third as long as 

 wing), slender, the acrotarsium distinctly scutellate ; middle toe (with- 

 out claw) less than two-thirds as long as tarsus; lateral toes imequal, 

 the inner (without claw) reaching to subterminal joint of middle 

 toe, the outer somewhat farther; hallux shorter than inner toe, but 

 much stouter; basal phalanx of middle toe united for about half its 

 leno-th to outer toe, almost wholly free from inner toe: claws normal 

 in size (or rather small) and curvature. 



Coloration. — Above brownish gray or grayish brown, the wings 

 with pale gray and whitish edgings; lateral rectrices tipped with 

 white; under parts whitish, conspicuously streaked with dusky. 



Nidijication. — Nest open above, bulky, composed externally of 

 twigs, lined with finer materials, placed in dense desert slii'ubs. 

 Eggs (3-5) bluish green, speckled or spotted with brown. 



Range. — Arid plains and foothills of western North America. 

 (Monotypic.) 



