188 



BULLETIN 50, IGNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 



a moro or less distinct sulnnalar stripo; bill dusky, the basal half 

 (more or less) of mandible pale cal,)rod ((leshy in life) ; iris bright 

 lemon or sulphur yellow; legs and feet light brown -(in dried skins). 



Young. — Essentially like adults but back (sometimes pileum and 

 rump also) indistinctly streaked or spotted with dusky (the ground 

 color of rump and upper tail-coverts paler and duller than in adults), 

 tertials margined tcrmiiuilly with buffy. and streaks on imder ])arts 

 (always blackish) less sharply defined. ' 



AduJf /w/7f'.— Length (skins), 235-293 (261); wing, 99.5-115 

 (10(1.2); tail, 11()-187 (126.1); exposed culmen, 2.T-29 (25.5); tarsus, 

 33.5-35.5 (34.5); middle toe, 22-25 (23.4). « 



Adult female. --Length (skins), 23S-280 (260); wing, 05.5 114 

 (103.7); tail, 109-141 (123.4); exposed culmen, 22-29 (25.3); tar- 

 sus, 32.5-35 (33.7); middle toe, 21.5-24.5 (23.3). V 



Eastern United States and southeastern Canada; northward to 

 southern Maine (Oxford Cnmty), Vermont, New York, northern 

 Ontario (Port Sydney, Elmsdale, etc.), Manitoba (Red River Valley, 

 Big Plain, Riding Mountain, Swan River, etc.), and wSaskatchewan 

 (Fort Carlton, Forks of Saskatchewan) ; breeding southward to 

 northern Florida (Wacissa River), Alabama (Coosada), ISiississippi, 

 and eastern Texas, westward to base of Rocky Mountains in Mon- 

 tana, Wyoming, and Colorado; wintering from North Carolina, south- 

 eastern Missouri, etc. (more rarely farther northward) to southern 

 Florida and south-central Texas Harris County, Bexar County, etc.). 



a Twenty-three specimens. 



b Fourteen specimens. 



Specimens from the region of the Great Phiins average larger and slightly ])aler in 

 color of upper parts than those from more eastern localities, but, as well as I am 

 able to judge from the rather unsatisfactory series of western examples, the difference 

 is too inconstant to justify recognition of a western form. Average measurements 

 are as follows: 



If three males from Texas and one from Fort Rice, North Dakota (with tail ranging 

 from 123.5 to 124.5). are transferred to the Mississippi Valley series, and one from 

 lUoomington, Illinois (with tail measuring 132) transferred to the extreme western 

 s(>ries, as possibly they should be. the difference in measurements would of course 

 be much more pronounced. 



