BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 669 



RHODOSTETHIA ROSEA (Macgillivray^ 



ROSS'S GTTLL. 



Adults in summer (sexes alike). — Head, neck, entire under parts, 

 including axillars, lower rump, upper tail-coverts and tail immacu- 

 late white, the neck and under parts more or less strongly (often 

 deeply) suffused with pure eosine pink;** a narrow collar of black 

 round upper part of neck, widest in front, formed by black tips to 

 the feathers; back, scapulars, upper rump, and wings (including their 

 under surface), paUid neutral gray (very slightly darker on wings), 

 the secondaries and proximal primaries tipped with white or pink, 

 the outer web of outermost primary mostly black or blackish; bill 

 black; rictus and naked orbital ring deep orange to vermilion red 

 (in Ufe); iris dark broMn; legs and feet orange-red, vermilion, or 

 coral red (in life). 



Adults in winter. — Similar to summer adults but without any black 

 collar, and pileum tinged with pale gra5\ 



Immature (second summer). — Similar to summer adults, but lesser 

 and middle wing-coverts dusky or blackish superficially (only the 

 concealed portion being pale grsij) ; proximal secondaries, alula, and 

 adjacent small feathers, together with three outer primaries, dusky 

 or blackish, the inner webs of the last, however, with the marginal 

 half pale gray; remaining primaries pale gray passing into white on 

 the innermost ones, all of them broadly tipped with black; tail white, 

 but third, fourth, and fifth pairs of rectrices (counting from outside) 

 broadly tipped with Idack, this about 19 mm. wide on the fifth (next 

 to middle) pair. 



Young (first autumn). — General color of upper parts pallid neutral 

 gray superficially (the feathers white beneath surface), but this 

 broken by heavy cloudings of dark sooty, many of the feathers 

 being broadly tipped with this color, the dusky prevailing on upper 

 rump, where the feathers are narrowly tipped with dull buffy; 

 lower rump, upper tail-coverts and greater part of tail immaculate 

 white, the six middle rectrices tipped with sooty blackish, this about 

 20-22 mm. wide on middle pair Init reduced on third pair (from 

 middle) to a slight mottling at extreme tip; lesser and middle wing- 

 coverts, tertials, and most of scapulars dark sooty or sooty blackish, 

 margined terminally with pale grayish buffy; greater wing-coverts 

 immaculate pallid gray fading into white terminally; secondaries 

 and two innermost primaries white; next two primaries with white 

 inner webs and shafts, the outer webs pallid gray, the third (from 

 inside) with inner web narrowly margined with black terminally, 

 the fourth with an elongated spot of black on distal portion of each 



« In some specimens this pink suffusion pervades practically the entire plumage, 

 even the pale gray of the "mantle" being more or less tinged by it. 



