ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 289 



a'. Cheeks and ear-coverts black. Back black; black of throat not reachin- base 



or bill ■, . . 



a\ Cheeks and ear-coverts white! ' hjaponica. 



b 1. Back black ; black of throat reaches base of bill. . 2 luoena 



6^ Back gray; black of throat reaches base of bill V..V.V.V3, ocularis. 



This difierence in the color corresponds with the difference in their 

 geographical distribution. From what can be learned from the litera- 

 ture, their occurrence in the summer plumage is about as follows: 



1. M.japonica in Japan and the neighboring tracts of the mainland. 



2. M. Ingens in Kamtschatka and the adjacent islands 5 Japan. 



3. M. oeularis, Baikal, Dauria, and the Tschuktschi Peninsula. 



As to the probable differences between the females of lugens and the 

 males of ocularis, I rafer to what is said under the head of the latter 

 species (p. 286), proposing here to give a description of the different 

 plumages of Ingens : 



Old S-U. S. Nat.Mus. No. 92685; L. Stejnecjer No. 2037. retropauUU, Mayl7, 1883 

 Ins blackish brown Bill and feet black. Second and third primaries equal and 

 longest, first very little shorter, considerably longer than fourtl. 



Posterior half of head npper neck, back, and upper tail-coverts glossy black with 

 a bluish inge, on the left half of nropyginm a gray patch, caused by feachers of the 

 winter plumage not yet moulted; the lateral upper tail-coverts with broad white 

 margins on their outer webs. A line through the eye, behind connected with the 

 black of the upper neck, chin (the white at the base of the feather shining throu.^h 

 however ) throat, jugulum, and pnepectus are, likewise, black with bluish gloss' 

 Forehead and anterior half of crown, on the sides extended backward into a broad 

 stripe behind and above the eye, further, the malar, subocular, and auricular regions 

 as also the sides of the neck, and finally the lower surface, behind the pn.pectus 

 and the Hanks pure snowy white, the latter suffused with gray. The wi. -s .ne 

 remarkable for the great extent of the white color, the four'firit primariXing 

 wholly white, except for the terminal 25-.., which, together with a narrow stripe on 

 the outer -weh along the shaft, are black, so that more than the basal two-thi nls of the 

 inner webs are white from margin to shaft. On the following primaries the black 

 increases on the inner web, while the white edging of the outer one is getting broader. 

 The large arm-cover s, as al«o the middle-coverts, are pure white, wldle the primary 

 coverts have a black stripe on the outer web for the basal two-thirds. The lesser 

 wing-coverts ai^ dull black with the exterior edges shaded with gray; under wino- 

 cover s and ax.llaries pure white. Tibial feathers blackish, the u^per ones broadfy 

 tipped with white. The three middle pairs of rectrices are deep black, the interior 

 one with a pure white edging on the outer web tapering towards the tit. ; the two 

 ateral pairs are white with a black edging on the inner webs falling short of the tip, 

 in the external pair by one-third of the feathers' length, in the following by one-slxth: 



This is the most developed plumage of the old male, described by Mr 

 Seebohm as M. blaUstoni* The evidence is another male (Eo. 92684), 



middle stnlr^™ t' ^''^''^ '""" ^y^ouj^. to the species in question, describing the 

 nnddle state as M. amurensis, the very old as M. MaMstoni. When describing the 

 first one he remarks that " in the present condition of ornithological literature, loaded 

 with synonyms, any one who adds a name to the almost exhaustless list is guilty of 

 a crime. We cannot agree with him there. It would have been a much greater 

 15861 Bull. 29 19 



