22 BUBONIDiJ:. 



number ou the secondaries and tail. Ear-coverts dnll tawny shaded 

 with grey and barred with black. 



d. Yancouver's Island {J. K. Lord). Total length 20 inches, 

 wing lo-2, tail 9-5, tarsus 2-6. Bars on primaries, secondaries, 

 and tail 6. 



e. Vancouver's Island {Dr. Ltjull). Total length 21 inches, 

 wing 14-7, tail 9, tarsus 2-45. Bars on secondaries 6, and on 

 tail 7. It is impossible to count the bars on the primaries, as they 

 are nearly aU merged, producing a uniform surface below. 



/. Vancouver's Island {Dr. Lyall). Total length 21 inches, wing 

 14-8, tail 9, tarsus 2-55. Bars on primaries and secondaries 6, and 

 on tail 6. This bird is quite light-coloured compared with the 

 foregoing specimens, and has a greyish face with a few black mark- 

 ings. In tone of colour it is not very different from Mr. B. Ross's 

 bird from Fort Simpson, but does not show the orange-buff bases to 

 the feathers quite so much. 



These Pacitic-coast birds, as a rule, have the lower surface of the 

 primaries nearly uniform brown ; but these are also, perhaps in 

 older birds, often as distinctly barred as in true B. virginianus. 



Mr. Ridgway separates as a race, equal in value to the subspecies 

 he calls ^^acificus, the pale form which Swainson named arcticus ; 

 and of this be gives the habitat as the "western region of North 

 America, from the interior Arctic districts to the tablelands of 

 Mexico." 



On this subspecies Dr. Coues's remarks should be studied (B. N.W. 

 Am. p. 301). 



I consider the type specimen to be nothing but a white variety of 

 £. virginianus; but should it constitute a race, as Mr. Ridgway 

 thinks, it will hold the same relation to Biiho virginianus that B. 

 turcomanus does to B. ignavus ; but it is whiter in proportion. The 

 t}'pe in the British Museum may be briefly described as follows : — 

 General colour white, slightly tinged here and there with light 

 orang-e-buff ; aU the upper surface mottled with zigzag cross markings 

 of brown, rather broad and distantly vermiculated, the greater coverts 

 white at tip of outer web ; quills buffy white, with about six bars of 

 dark brown on the outer web, the interspaces very slightly mottled 

 with brown vermiculations, excepting at the tips of the primaries, 

 which are very closely vermiculated with sandy brown, as also are 

 the primary coverts at their extremities ; tail-feathers white, incli- 

 ning to orange-buff on the inner web, and crossed with six regular 

 though narrow bands of dark brown ; lores and general facial aspect 

 white, with sUvery-white shaft-lines, the hinder margin of the ear- 

 coverts Wack ; chin and fore neck pure white, separated from each 

 other by a line of stiff feathers, which are white, with a broad mesial 

 blackish streak ; rest of under surface pure white, the leg-feathers 

 and under tail-coverts immaculate, the breast irregularly spotted 

 with blackish brown, the rest of the body very narrowly barred 

 Avith the same : under wing-coverts pure white, the outermost of 

 the lower series black at the tips, and forming a wing-spot which 

 resembles the inner lining of the quills ; bill and claws bluish 



