BIRDS OP NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 191 



terminal V-shaped marks; center of abdomen and under tail coverts 

 white, sometimes tinged with pale ashy buff ; thighs pale light cinnamon- 

 drab, the distal tarsal plumes paler, more whitish and very long, covering 

 all but the claw of the middle toe. 



Adult male (spring). — Similar to the fresh autumn plumage but gen- 

 erally darker, the pale tips and margins of the feathers reduced by wear ; 

 the tarsal plumes shorter (also because of wear). 



Adult female. — Very similar to the plumage of the male in comparable 

 degree of freshness or abrasion, but with the median rectrices more strictly 

 transversely barred, less longitudinally marbled. 



JuvenaP^. — Crown and occiput hazel with a median, longitudinal, 

 posteriorly broadening black stripe ; interscapulars, scapulars, greater and 

 median upper wing coverts, and inner secondaries irregularly barred and 

 blotched with fuscous-black and cinnamon-buff to tawny-olive as in the 

 adults but with prominent white shaft stripes and without white bars 

 or spots ; the upper wing coverts with the brownish areas duller than 

 the interscapulars ; primaries and outer secondaries similar to the adult 

 but terminally more pointed ; back, lower back, rump, and upper tail 

 coverts generally similar to the adult; rectrices as in the adult but the 

 median ones shorter, and all, especially the lateral ones, less whitish, 

 more huffy, and more mottled and speckled with dusky brownish ; the 

 median tw^o pairs with a broad buffy whitish median stripe ; chin, throat, 

 and sides of head cream buff to colonial buff ; lower throat, breast, and 

 upper abdomen dirty white spotted with clove brown and sepia, the 

 feathers of the sides of the neck similar but with white shaft stripes ; 

 sides and flanks similar but with the spots paler drab to somewhat tawny- 

 drab ; abdomen dirty white almost unspotted ; thighs tinged strongly with 

 colonial buff. 



Downy young. — Forehead, crown, occiput, and nape mustard yellow, 

 tinged on the occiput and nape with pale ochraceous-buff ; a black median 

 line, beginning as a spot on the base of the culmen extending back to 

 the crown where it bifurcates forming a loop on the occiput, the two 

 branches reuniting on the nape; a few small black spots lateral to this 

 on the anterior part of the occiput and on the nape; rest of upperparts 

 straw yellow tinged strongly on the middorsal line with ochraceous- 

 tawny, and blotched and streaked broadly with black, these markings 

 more or less confining the ochraceous spinal areas and also forming semi- 

 transverse humeral lines ; sides of head bright light mustard yellow, with 

 a black spot on the auriculars ; underparts bright straw yellow, tinged 

 with mustard yellow on the chin, throat, and side. 



Adtdt male.— Wmg 196-212 (203.2); tail 113-125 (118.7); culmen, 

 from anterior end of nostril, 10.3-11.8 (10.9) ; tarsus 40.4-44.3 (42.3) ; 



Female only seen, but sexes undoubtedly alike. 



