BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 247 



personafus as a distinct species, to which .V. hindloei, N. hauri, and 

 N. hulli are referred as subspecies. Until these forms are much 

 better understood than they are at present, however, it seems to me 

 best to treat them all as specifically distinct, though most likely their 

 segregation into a smaller number of specific types may eventually 

 be found to more correctly express their relationships. 



NESOMIMUS TRIFASCIATUS i Gould). 

 THREE-BANDED MOCKINGBIRD. 



Adults (sexes alike). — Above dark sooty brown or clove browm, 

 becoming much paler (light hair brown or broccoli brown) on rump 

 and upper tail-coverts; feathers of pileum narrowly tipped with dull 

 white or grayish white (except in worn plumage), the scapulars and 

 interscapulars (in fresh plumage) more narrowl}^ tipped with the same; 

 upper tail-coverts broadly margined terminally with pale grayish 

 brown or dull brownish white, this preceded by a spot of dusky 

 brown, abruptly defined against the paler tip but anteriorly fading 

 gradually into the light grayish brown of the general color;'' lesser 

 wing-coverts margined with pale grayish, the last two rows tipped, 

 rather broadly, with white, forming two distinct but narrow bands; 

 middle and greater coverts more broadly tipped with white, the latter 

 edged with pale grayish browm; secondaries edged mth pale grayish 

 brown, the tertials rather broadly tipped with white; primaries edged 

 with pale gray, these edgings becoming whitish on middle portion of 

 the sinuated quills; remiges indistinctly tipped with pale grayish 

 bro^vn or dull brownish white, these tips narrower on middle rectrices, 

 broader on lateral rectrices; auricular region, supra-auricular stripe, 

 malar region, and under parts soiled white; a narrow supraloral streak 

 of dull white (sometimes obsolete or wanting) ; lores blackish, the 

 suborbital and malar regions (especially anterior portion) more or less 

 flecked with dusky; a large patch of nearly uniform sooty grayish 

 brown or dusky on each side of chest, the median portion of chest 

 more or less spotted, transversely, with the same; sides and flanks 

 broadly streaked with dusky, the under tail-coverts sometimes with 

 narrow dusky streaks; under wing-coverts dusky centrally, broadly 

 margined with white; bill blackish, the mandibular rami more or less 

 horn colored; iris dark brown; legs and feet dusky horn color or 

 blackish. 



Adult male. —I^ength (skins), 240-245(242.8) ; wing, 121-126(124.4) ; 

 tail, 110-120 (116); exposed culmen, 27; tarsus, 40-41 (40.2) : middle 

 toe, 23-24 (23.3).^ 



O' Sometimes these dusky spaces form rather definite subterminal bars. 

 ^Five specimens from Gardner Island, near Cliarles. 



