322 THE WESTERN LONG-TAILED CHAT 



below, including lining of the wings, rich yellow ; hinder half white, shaded 

 with gray on the sides. Loral region black ; a sharp maxillary line, another 

 from nostril over the eye, and the under eyelid, white. Bill blackish-plum- 

 beous; feet plumbeous. Length, 7 J or more; extent about 10; wing, 3; 

 tail, 3i. 



There is very little difference with sex, age, or season in this bird, except- 

 ing in the purity and intensity of the tints. The yellow of the breast is 

 sometimes heightened to orange, or may show golden as usual, with staina 

 of intense orange here and there. Immature specimens have the under man- 

 dible light plumbeous or plumbeous-white. In very young birds, the yellow 

 may appear only as slashing in the white, and the peculiar markings of the 

 side of the head are defective. 



This form, in its typical manifestation, such as is presented in the Colo- 

 radan region, is decidedly different from true virens in the shade of the upper 

 parts— quite grayish instead of pure olive-green. But in both cases the 

 shade is liable to variation. In the dullest colored Coloradan birds there 

 is scarcely a tinge of olive in the gray of the upper parts. The yellow of 

 the breast is as rich, however, as that of the Eastern representatives. As 

 in the cases of so many other birds from the same region, the tail averages 

 longer than that of Eastern representatives of the same species. 



THE best examples of the Western or Long-tailed Chat come 

 from the arid regions of the Great Basin, and the Colorado 

 watershed in general, the bird being there usually duller colored 

 than it is about the confines of its range. Birds more or less 

 properl}^ referable to this form, however, occur throughout the 

 Middle and Western Provinces of the United States, and also 

 in Western Mexico, though the ordinary Mexican bird is rather 

 I. virens. Owing to the remarkable surface-irregularities of the 

 region this race inhabits, its movements can scarcely be traced 

 with the precision we have acquired in noting the passages of 

 the Eastern relative, and can only say in general terms that the 

 movements of the two are correspondent. We hear of arrivals 

 in Southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico by the 

 middle or latter part of April ; of nests within a month subse- 

 quently; and of departures in September. Such dates corre- 

 spond with my observations at Fort Whipple, and may be used 

 for calculation. In these latitudes, it ascends mountains prob- 

 ably not higher than about 9,000 feet, and is generally distrib- 

 uted at all lower levels. It is said, doubtless rightly, to extend 

 to the Columbia and Upper Missouri region, but it is certainly 

 less abundant in the northerly portions of its range than in the 

 latitudes of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and southward. Our in- 

 formation respecting its dispersion in winter is deficient ; one 

 author ascribes a winter range extending to the vicinity of 

 Sacramento, California, but it may be doubted that any of these 



