BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 651 



the base of the tail, and becoming broader distally, the siibterminal 

 one, broadest (about 12-15 mm.) ; lores like forehead, but separated 

 from the eyes by a narrow blackish or plumbeous-black circumocular 

 ring which merges dorsally insensibly into the dark crown, and is 

 continuous with the cheeks and a broad malar stripe on either side 

 of the upper throat (mustachial stripe of some authors), and with 

 the auriculars; the area between the malar stripe and the auriculars 

 is very variable, being whitish in som.e specimens, grayish in others, 

 and plumbeous-black, completely destroying the distinctness of the 

 malar stripe from the auriculars in others (irrespective of age, season, 

 or geography) ; chin and throat white often tinged with ashy or tilleul 

 buff or cartridge buff; breast the same, but som.e of the feathers with 

 very faint, very narrow, shaft streaks of blackish, and the lower breast 

 with a few somewhat rounded spots of blackish; abdomen, sides, 

 flanks, thighs, and under tail coverts creamy white to cartridge bufi'y 

 transversely spotted or narrowly barred with blackish, the bars best 

 formed and most pronounced on the sides, flanlcs, and thighs, slightly 

 paler and less prominent on the under tail coverts, generally broken 

 into spots on the abdomen proper; in some cases the lower median 

 part of the abdomen almost immaculate; under wing coverts white 

 barred narrowly with black, the white interspaces (as on the thighs, 

 fianl^s, etc.) m.uch wider than the dark bars; cere, bare orbital space, 

 tarsi, and toes bright king's yellow; iris very dark brown; bill pale 

 bluish, the culm en darker, the tip blackish.*" 



Adult female.— Similar to the adult male, but usually somewhat 

 more tinged with light ochraceous-buff below; the buffy whitish bases 

 of the nape feathers more often visible; the breast more spotted, even 

 on the anterior part of the breast, the abdomen, sides, flanlvs, thighs, 

 and under tail coverts more heavil}^ barred with black, the bars 

 deeper, wider, and more numerous; and the light area on the inner 

 webs of the primaries lightly tinged with very pale ochraceous-buff, 

 size larger. 



Juvenal male. — Entire top of head, upperparts of body, upper 

 wing and tail coverts, remages and rectrices fuscous to chaetura black, 

 the forehead tinged with ashy buffy, the nape feathers very broadly 

 edged with light ochraceous-buff (the fuscous reduced to a broad 

 median stripe), the feathers of the body and the wing and tail coverts 

 tipped and edged narrowly with ochraceous-buff to whitish, the 

 remiges and rectrices tipped with whitish; primaries as in adult, but 

 with fewer dark bars (7 or 8) on the pale portion of the inner web, the 

 bars wider and generally fusing at the inner margin of the feathers, 

 the pale area much washed with pale ochraceous-buff to pinlvish 



*° In some specimens the entire underparts are washed with light ochraceous- 

 buff. 



