BIKDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 



43 



coverts black margined with glossy blue-black; primary coverts, 

 primaries, and tail uniform black, the latter (except two to four 

 middle rectrices) tipped with white, the lateral pair sometimes 

 edged with white; rump, upper tail-coverts, secondaries, and under 

 wing-coverts (except along margin of wing) uniform pure white, the 

 secondaries with shafts and basal portion (mostly concealed) black; 

 under parts, posterior to upper chest, white, the abdomen more or 

 less tinged with dull yellowish or salmon color, sometimes with 

 bright red; bill grayish horn color, darker terminally, in dried skins, 

 bluish white basally, passing into bluish gray or lead color terminally 

 in life; iris deep brown or reddish brown; legs and feet dusky in dried 

 skins, light greenish gray in life. 



Adult male.— Length (skins), 194-235 (221); wing, 128-149.5 

 (139.5); tail, 70-81 (75.3); culmen, 25-29 (27.3); tarsus, 21.5-24.5 

 (23); outer anterior toe, 16-19 (17.6).« 



Adult female.— Length (skins), 202-223 (213); wing, 127.5-144 

 (136.5); tail, 66-84.5 (74.1); culmen, 25-30 (26.6); tarsus, 20.5-24 

 (21.9); outer anterior toe, 16.5-19 (17.5).^ 



a Thirty-two specimens. 



b Twenty-one specimens. 



Locality. 



Outer 

 ante- 

 rior toe. 



MALES. 



Ten adult males from east of Allegheny Mountains 



Ten adult males from Mississippi Valley (east of Missouri River) . 



Ten adult males from west of Missouri River 



Two adult males from Florida 



FEMALES. 



Five adult females from east of Allegheny Mountains 



Eight adult females from Mississippi Valley (east of Missouri 



River) 



Six adult females from west of Missouri River 



One adult female from Mississippi 



One adult female from Florida 



17.4 

 17.2 

 18.2 

 16.8 



17.4 



16.9 

 18.4 

 16.5 

 18 



Were it not for the fact that specimens from the Mississippi Valley agree with 

 them in coloration but average even smaller than those from the Atlantic States, the 

 specimens of this species from the region of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains 

 could easily be separated as a well-defined subspecies on account of their decidedly 

 greater size and frequency of red on the abdomen. As already stated, however, 

 Mississippi Valley specimens also usually have the abdomen more or less strongly 

 tinged with red (a feature wanting in every one of the Atlantic coast specimens 

 examined) but average even smaller (though very slightly so) than extreme eastern 

 specimens. Florida examples are small, but the only two males examined from that 

 State both exceed in length of wing an adult male from Richland Coimty, Illinois, 

 these measuring 133 and 135 mm., respectively, in the two Florida males, and 128, 

 134, and 134 in three adult males from Richland County, another from Knox 

 County, Indiana, having the wing 134.5. 



