2 2 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



striped on the back and upper tail coverts with deep brown. Each feather (includ- 

 ing the scapularies, the tertiaries and most of the wing coverts) is centrally clove 

 brown, merging into an outer zone of sepia or vandyke, broadly edged (narrowly 

 on the crown) with gray which, on the inner webs of the median feathers of the 

 crown, on the back, and on the tertiaries, becomes conspicuously ashy white and 

 forms two obscure wing-bars at the tips of the greater and median coverts. The 

 coverts and the outer webs of the scapularies, tertiaries and secondaries, are tinged 

 with pale russet. Quill-feathers of the wings and tail deep hair brown above, paler 

 below, the two outer rectrices slightly paler than the rest, the shafts lighter colored, 

 the webs (chiefly the outer) narrowly edged with ashy white. Under parts white, 

 streaked rather broadly with brown along the sides from the bill to the tail and on 

 the breast, giving the effect of spotting when the plumage is disarranged. The 

 individual feathers have central Hnear spots of clove brown that merge into narrow 

 zones of russet-tinged vandyke. A conspicuously dark, submalar streak is continued 

 along the sides in two fairly definite lines that are supplemented by others on the 

 breast, where they aggregate into an obscure central blotch, the entire inner web 

 of some of the median feathers being of a rusty brown. The chin and jugulum are 

 immaculate and, together with a malar stripe, broadening posteriorly, are pure white. 

 A dark brown rictal streak curves upward towards a paler postocular line. The 

 auriculars are ashy or brown-tinged ; the lores paler. A broad superciliary line is 

 canary yellow, becoming ashy posteriorly. The orbital ring is whitish, more or less 

 tinged with yellow. Lining of wing and longer under tail coverts (the shorter are 

 entirely white and conceal the others) white with dusky shaft streaks. Bend of wing 

 tinged with yellow, which sometimes also suffuses the lesser external coverts. Tibia; 

 pale Vandyke. Legs, in fresh specimen, yellowish or brownish flesh-color, fading in 

 time to a pale yellowish buff. Feet darker, especially at the joints. Bill in fresh 

 specimens : upper mandible bluish black, grayish or yellowish along posterior two 

 thirds of the edge, fading in time to a blackish brown ; lower mandible bluish gray 

 at tip, becoming a pale flesh brown posteriorly, and flesh-color at the base, fading 

 in time to a yellowish buff. Iris deep hazel brown. The sexes are alike in plumage 

 differing only in relative size. 



During the breeding season, the plumage becoming much abraded, the pale 

 edgings of the feathers are lost to such an extent that the birds, instead of appearing, 

 like most species, paler and faded, are really darker, and the streakings are sharper, 

 than at any other season of the year. The yellow over the eye, acquired late in the 

 spring moult, is equally intense in both sexes, although the individual intensity is 

 variable. The feathers of the lower parts are white only at their extremities, and 

 if disarranged easily show the mouse-gray of their proximal portion. 



Adults in autumn. Above hoary, even grayer than in spring dress, owing to the 

 broad ashy edgings of the feathers. The russet on the wings is a little more pro- 

 nounced, the Vandyke zone of the dorsal feathers is broader, and the superciliary 

 line is ashy white or only faintly tinged with yellow. Beneath, a slight buffy cast 

 prevails except on the chin, abdomen, and lower tail coverts, and the streakings 

 are suffused, and paler and rustier than in spring. This effect is due largely to a 

 wider zone of the vandyke and to the long, veiling, white margins of the feathers. 



