BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 431 



STEGANOPUS TRICOLOR Vieillot. 



WILSON'S PHALAROPE. 



Adult female in breeding plumage.— Forehead and crown pale 

 bluish gray, the former with a blackish line along each side; occiput 

 and nape white, passing into bluish gray or slate-gray on back and 

 scapulars; stripe on side of head, chiefly behind eye, and continued 

 down side of neck, black, passing on lower neck into rich dark chest- 

 nut, this continued backward, more or less brokenly, along each 

 side of interscapular region, the outer portion of the scapular region 

 also with a stripe of chestnut; short stripe from above lores to above 

 eyes (not extending to bill), suborbital and rictal regions, chin and 

 throat immaculate white; foreneck and chest soft buffy cinnamon, 

 deeper laterally and posteriorly, and fading gradually into creamy buff 

 on breast; rest of under parts immaculate white; wings bro-v^aiish gray, 

 the coverts and tertials margined with paler; rump brownish gray; 

 upper tail-coverts white, the longer feathers marked more or less 

 with mouse gray sub terminally; tail mouse gray, the lateral feathers 

 irregularly barred on the inner web and narrowly tipped with white; 

 bill black; iris dark brown; legs and feet black. 



Adult male in breeding plumage. — Smaller and much duller in color 

 than the adult female, the beautiful pattern and richly contrasted 

 colors of the latter but faintly indicated. 



Winter plumage. — Upper parts plain light gray, except upper tail- 

 coverts which, together with superciliary stripe and entire under 

 parts, are white, the chest and sides of breast faintly tinged with pale 



gray- 



Young. — Crown, back, and scapulars dusky, the feathers con- 

 spicuously margined with buff; wing-coverts grayish brown, mar- 

 gined with pale buff or whitish; upper tail-coverts, superciliary stripe, 

 and lower parts white, the neck tinged with buff". 



Downy young. — General color bright cinnamon-buff or tawn}-- 

 buff, paler beneath, the abdomen nearly white; occiput and nape 

 with a distinct median streak of black, on the former branching 

 laterally into two narrower irregular lines; lower back and rump with 

 three broad black stripes; flanks with a black spot and caudal region 

 crossed by a broad sub terminal bar of black. 



Adult male.— Wing, 116-125 (121.1); tail, 48-54 (51.2); exposed 

 culmen, 28-31 (30.5); tarsus, 28.5-33 (30.1); middle toe, 22-25 (24).° 



o Ten specimens. 



