266 ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



I have been obliged to separate this bird as a subspecies, it being dis- 

 tinguishable chiefly by the much brighter red which suflFuses the plum- 

 age of the red males all over. In brightly colored specimens, for in- 

 stance the type, the whole upper surface is of a rather bright pome- 

 granate red, being only slightly duller in the scapular region, while the 

 wings and the whole under surface are more or less suffused with rose 

 color, throat and breast being intensely rose red. 



The type is U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 89162. 



In regard to the above synonymy it must be remarked, that I regard 

 most of the Siberian references as only doubtfully relating to this form. 

 Comparison of material in European collections may decide which ref- 

 erences should be eliminated. 



There can be no doubt that males of this species breed in the gray 

 plumage. I found these breeding gray males almost as common in Pe- 

 tropaulski as the red ones, their conduct and song being exactly the 

 same as that of the latter, and dissection showed that the genital organs 

 were well developed and fully mature. It seems to be a question 

 whether these mature gray birds will ever assume the red plumage^ 

 and I should be most inclined to believe that we have here to do with 

 a kind of dichromatism. The two males here alluded to are very 

 gray and pale, much less tinged with ochraceous olive than a female 

 from India, and they are completely destitute even of the slightest trace 

 of a reddish suffusion anywhere. No. 89164 has among the old bleached 

 and abraded rectrices a new one, unabraded, deeply colored, but of full 

 length, and not so young as to show any trace of the outer follicle from 

 which it sprung. This feather is probably grown out to replace an ac- 

 cidental loss ; but if the bird at the following moult was going to assume 

 the red plumage, this feather, I think, would have shown the character 

 of the latter. It is, however, exteriorly edged with greenish yellow 

 without a trace of red. 



The same individual shows another peculiarity in the coloring of the 

 tail, as all the old rectrices have the tips decidedly darker, in strong: 

 contrast to the remaining part of the feathers, thus forming a well 

 marked terminal band, the more distinct as there is a faint indication 

 of a subapical lighter one. In none of the other specimens is there 

 any similar pattern, nor is it indicated on the new rectrix of the same 

 bird, mentioned above. 



