BIKDS OF NOETH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 585 



duller 1)1ug: lores blackish; middle wing-eoverts very brofidly tipped 

 with white, the greater coverts more narrowly tipped with the same, 

 forming two bands; wings otherwise blackish, the greater coverts and 

 remiges edged with bluish; tail blackish, the rectrices edged with 

 greenish blue; chest tawnj^-ochraceous, this color extending farther 

 backward laterally than medially; abdomen, under tail-coverts, etc., 

 white; maxilla black; mandible (in life) pale grayish blue, with lilack 

 streak on gonys; iris brown; legs and feet black or duskv l)i'own; 

 length (skins), 127.25-140.72 (133.10); wing, 70.61-76.45 (73.11); tail, 

 52.58-57.66 (55.37); exposed culmen, 9.91-10.11 (10.16); depth of !)ill 

 at base. 7.37-7.62 (7.19); tarsus. 16.26-17.78 (17.27): middle toe, 

 12.19-13.21 (12.70).^ 



Adult fcHKiIe. — Above gra^'ish brown, passing into dull greenish 

 blue, or uuich tinged with this color, on rump and upper tail-coverts, 

 the back sometimes narrowly and indistinctly streaked with dusky; 

 wings and tail dusky, the remiges and rectrices edged with dull green- 

 ish blue, the middle and greater wing-coverts tipped with l)utfy or 

 bufl'y whitish; anterior and lateral under parts dull bufiV; deepest on 

 chest; abdomen and under tail-coverts white or Inifly white; length 

 (skins), 124.71-136.65 (132.33); wing, 65.79-71.88 (69.34); tail, 50.80- 

 58.67 (53.09); exposed culmen, 9.14-10.41 (9.91); depth of bill at base, 

 6.86-7.62 (7.11); tarsus. 16.26-17.53 (17.02); middle toe, 12.19-12.95 

 (12.70).-^ 



Young. — Similar to adult female but rump and upper tail-coverts 

 light brown, without bluish or greenish tinge, and usually with chest 

 and sides narrowly and indistinctly streaked. 



Immature males have the blue, especially on the upper parts, more 

 or less clouded or overlaid by cinnamon-brown. 



Western United States and British Provinces; north to British 

 Columbia (chiefly east of Cascade Mountains), Idaho, Montana, etc. 

 (to Assiniboia ?. see Blakiston, Ibis, 1863, 80); south (in winter) to 

 Cape St. Lucas, Sinaloa (Mazatlan), Durango (Chacala), and Valley of 

 IVIexico; east nearly or quite across the Great Plains to South Dakota 

 (Vermilion), Kansas (Ellis), etc. 



Ember tza amccna Say, in Long's Exped., ii, 1823, 47. 



FringiUa amoena Bonaparte, Am. Orn., i, 1825, 61, pi. 6, fig. 5; Synopsis, 1828, 

 106.— NuTTALL, Man. Orn. and Can., i, 1832, 473; 2d ed., i, 1840, 546.— 

 Audubon, Orn. Biog., v, 1839, 64, 230, pis. 398, 424, fig. 1. 



Spiza avicena Jardine, ed. Wilson's Am. Orn., iii, 1832, 317.— Audubon, Synop- 

 sis, 1839, 109; Birds Am., oct. ed., iii, 1841, 100, pi. 171.— Woodhouse, in 

 Eep. Sitgreaves' Expl. Znni and Col. R., 1853, 87 (New Mexico). — Heer- 

 MANN, Rep. Pacific R. R. Surv., x, pt. iv, 1859, 46 (California). 



[^SpizcC] amaena Bonaparte, Consp. Av. , i, 1850, 474. 



1 Seventeen specimens. ^ Ten specimens. 



