20 U. S. p. R. E. EXP. AND SURVEYS — ZOOLOGY — GENERAL REPORT, 



invariably one or the other of the three stages described below. The tail is never red, but 

 uniformly ashy brown, with transverse dark bars. 



The first and apparently most adult female is as follows : 



Bill wide at base, compressed towards the tip ; edge of upper mandible lobed ; cere large ; 

 wing long, third quill longest ; tail moderate, rather wide, even at the tip ; tarsus feathered in 

 front for nearly half its length, naked behind, bare portion in front having about twelve trans- 

 verse scales ; toes rather short ; claws strong. 



Entire upper parts dark brown, nearly black in the middle of many feathers, paler on the 

 edges ; quills brownish black, with wide transverse bands of cinereous on their inner webs, 

 becoming paler and nearly pure white towards the base of the quill ; tail brown, tinged with 

 ashy, and having about 10 to 12 narrow transverse bands of a darker shade of brown, the sub- 

 terminal of which is widest ; tip edged with white. 



Throat white, with longitudinal lines of dark brown ; neck before and hreast ashy broivn, 

 nearly the same color as the tail ; some of the feathers edged with reddish ; other under parts 

 white, nearly pure on the under tail coverts, and with transverse irregular bars of rufous on 

 the tibice and flanks, and of darker brownish rufous on the abdomen ; under wing coverts 

 white, with a few spots and transverse stripes of brown ; bill dark slate color ; tarsi, toes, and 

 cere, yellow. 



The color of the abdomen, tibiae, and inferior tail and wing coverts is very liable to vary in 

 specimens having the preceding plumage. Other specimens, precisely as just described in 

 other respects, have these parts with the rufous color predominating, and with more numerous 

 transverse, irregular, and imperfect bars of a darker shade of rufous, and with some broken 

 bars and arrow-heads of dark brown. Shafts of tail feathers and quills dark above, white 

 beneath. 



The second plumage is, apparently, that of the younger female. The upper parts are as 

 decribed above, but darker; throat white, tinged with yellowish, and with the dark lines 

 scarcely discernible ; breast dark broivn, nearly black ; other under parts pale rui'ous, with 

 numerous transverse bars of a darker shade of rufous and of dark brown, the latter more 

 numerous than in the preceding. Specimens with the breast of this color vary mainly in the 

 more or less numerous dark brown transverse stripes of the abdomen and flanks. 



The third plumage prevails only in specimens labelled as males. 



The upper parts are as first above described, though rather lighter, and with some feathers, 

 especially on the back, edged with rufous ; tail above rather lighter, and more strongly tinged 

 with cinereous ; throat white, with lines of dark brown ; neck before and breast light rufous, 

 some of the feathers with lines on the shafts of ashy brown ; other under parts white, nearly 

 pure and unspotted on the lower part of the abdomen and under tail coverts, tinged and 

 irregularly barred with pale rufous on the flanks, tibire, and upper part of the abdomen ; under 

 wing coverts nearly pure white. This plumage apparently varies but little, and only in the 

 greater or less number of the stripes of rufous on the abdomen. The bird in this plumage is 

 represented in the plate of Fauna Boreali Americana, cited above and in our plate. 



Dimensions. — Female, total length, about 21| inches ; wing IG, tail 8h inches ; tarsus 2-J 

 inches. Male, total length, about 19^, wing 15^, tail 8 inches. 



In all these specimens the color of the neck before and of the breast may be regarded as 

 forming a wide, uninterrupted transverse belt or band, and is a very conspicuous and apparently 

 constant character. The difference in the color of this belt or band is, as will be observed from 



