7. nUNDECECA. 331 



tail-featliers black, margined -with slaty blue, and fringed with white 

 on the inner web, the three outer feathers with a large white mark 

 near the end of the inner web ; head like the back, a little brighter 

 slaty blue on the fore part of the crown and over the eye ; base of 

 forehead, feathers above the eye, ear-coverts, sides of face, cheeks, 

 and throat black, descending along the sides of the breast and down 

 the tianks ; sides of neck slaty blue ; fore neck, breast, abdomen, and 

 under tail-coverts white ; the sides o£ the body washed with ashy 

 grey ; thighs ashy, with whitish margins ; under wing-coverts and 

 axillaries white, the edge of the wing slaty blue ; quills blackish 

 below, white along the edge of the inner web : " bill black ; feet 

 light brown ; iris dark brown " (Audubon) . Total length 5 inches, 

 culmen 0-5, wing 2-65, tail 2'15, tarsus 0-75. 



Adult female. General colour above ashy olive, with somewhat 

 of a bluish-grey shade on the head and rump ; lesser wing-coverts like 

 the back ; median and greater coverts bluish ashy, with dusky 

 bands ; bastard-wing and primary-coverts dusky brown ; quills 

 dusky brown, edged with ashy olive, with a speculum formed by 

 the white bases to the outer primaries, much smaller than in the 

 male ; upper tail-coverts more bluish ashy than the back ; tail- 

 feathers dusky, washed externally with bluish ashy, the outer feathers 

 with a light ashy patch near the end of tlie inner web, not white 

 as in the male ; lores dusky blackish, surmounted by a narrow line 

 of yellowish white, extending a little beyond the eye ; eyelid white 

 above and below, dusky before and behind ; ear-coverts dull ashy 

 brown, washed with olive, rather dusky on the fore part and below 

 the eye ; under surface of body pale olive-yellow, whitish on the 

 throat and malar line ; sides of bodj' inclining to olive-brown ; 

 thighs ashy brown ; under tail-coverts dull white, slightly washed 

 with yellow, the long ones with dusky centres ; axillaries pale 

 olive-yellow, with dusky ashy bases ; uuder wing-coverts whitish, 

 slightly washed with yellow and having dusky bases ; quills dusky 

 below, ashy whitish along the edge of the inner web. Total 

 length 4-6 inches, culmen 0"5, wing 2"3, tail 2, tarsus 0-8. 



Young birds in autumn plumage at first resemble the old female, 

 but the males may even then be distinguished from the females by the 

 larger white speculum on the base of the primaries, the darker ear- 

 coverts, which are slaty blackish, and the richer and more ochreous 

 colour of the underparts ; the white on the tail also is apparent. 

 From the olive plumage the male moults direct into the slaty-blue 

 dress of the adult, but after once having become blue and black, the 

 winter plumage of the second and subsequent years is remarkably 

 like that of the summer ; the slaty blue of tlie upper parts is slightly 

 washed with brown, and the black on the face and throat and sides of 

 the upper breast is a little varied with whitish edges to the feathers. 



Hah. Eastern provinces of North America, including British 

 North America ; breeds from New England, and doubtless from 

 higher portions of the Middle States northwards ; migratory in 

 most of the United States ; winters in Southern Florida and in 

 various West-India Islands, the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and St. 

 Domingo (Coucs). Occurs also in Guatemala (Salvin ij- Godinan). 



