BIRDS OP NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 313 



heavily blotched with fuscous-black, and very narrowly tipped and 

 edged with pale warm buff ; lateral feathers of upper back, and feathers 

 of lower back, and rump paler — pale slightly grayish buckthorn brown 

 to antique brown, narrowly barred with dusky and crossed by numerous 

 dusky-bordered, pale warm buffy bands ; upper tail coverts similar but 

 more rufescent and with black shaft streaks, the streaks sometimes 

 broken into a series of connected blotches ; rectrices neutral gray to deep 

 neutral gray, the median pair freckled with pale vinaceous-buff becom- 

 ing slightly rufescent terminally, the more lateral ones either uniform 

 or only slightly freckled terminally ; lores white in their upper part, 

 black in their lower part ; circumocular ring blackish ; cheeks and auricu- 

 lars hazen to dark russet bordered above and below by a narrow line 

 of black; chin and upper throat white; a fairly broad blackish band 

 across the lower throat, followed posteriorly by a broader one of cin- 

 namon to sayal brown ; this band is fairly uniform in some birds while 

 in others it is broken to the extent cf being little more than a series 

 of brownish lateral segments of white centered feathers; the posterior 

 feathers comprising this band are narrowly tipped with black and are 

 subterminally white; upper abdomen white washed with pale warm 

 buff, the feathers crossed by 4 or 5 narrow black bars; lower abdomen 

 without the buffy wash and with the blackish bars fewer or absent ; 

 feathers of sides and flanks like those of the abdomen but longer and 

 with broad median stripes of bright ochraceous-tawny ; thighs like the 

 abdomen but slightly washed in spots with pale ochraceous-tawny ; under 

 tail coverts pale ochraceous-tawny, the longer ones with incomplete 

 blackish shaft stripes; inner under wing coverts hair brown broadly 

 edged with white; outer under wing coverts similar but with narrow 

 whitish margins; bill blackish; iris dark brown; tarsi and toes grayish 

 flesh color, claws horn color. 



Adult male (erythristic phase). — Entire bird rich auburn to chestnut; 

 the blackish or fuscous markings of the normal plumage (on head, scapu- 

 lars, upper back, etc.) also present in this plumage but less distinct as 

 there is less contrast in tone in these dark birds ; chin and throat black- 

 ish; a white transverse patch on the breast in some and not in other 

 specimens ; dusky ventral barrings smaller, finer, and more restricted to 

 the margins of the feathers than in normal plumaged birds. 



Adult female (normal phase) — Similar to the adult male except for 

 the coloration of the head, which is as follows : Lores, broad superciliary 

 stripe, chin, and throat between ochraceous-buff and pale orange-yellow; 

 center of forehead, crown, and occiput between tawny and russet, the 

 coronal feathers with largely concealed black median areas, the occipital 

 ones with buffy edges ; the postocular area, including the auriculars, like 

 the crown ; the posterior border of the upper throat very narrowly fus- 

 cous to auburn, not black as in males; underparts generally as in males 



