BIRDS — LIOTRICHIDAE — OROSCOPTES MONTAN US. 



347 



The exposed portion of first primary is two-fifths that of the longest one, and the tarsus is very 

 distinctly scutellate. It is very different from the typical Mimus in the tail and wings, 

 as well as the longer, slenderer, and straighter bill. Its characteristic color consists in the 

 following points: Above, grayish brown; beneath, white, with arrow-shaped brown spots.' 

 Tail feathers blotched at the end with white. 



OEOSCOPTES MONTANUS, Baird. 



Mountain Mocking Bird. 



Orpfteus monJonus, TowNSEND, J. A. N. Sc. VII, ii, 1837, 192.— Acd. Synopsis, 1839, 87.— Ib. Birds Amer. II, 



184], 194; pi. 139. 

 Turdus montanus, Aud. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 437 ; pi. 369, f. 1. 

 Mimus montanus, Bonap. List, 1838. — Ib. Consp. 1850, 276. 



Sp. Ch. — First quill rather shorter than the sixth. Tail slightly graduated. Above brownish ash ; each feather obso- 

 letely darker in the centre. Beneath dull white, thicky marked with triangular spots, except on the under tail coverts 

 and around the anus, which regions are tinged with yellowish brown. Wing coverts and quills edged with dull white. Tail 

 feathers brown ; the outer edged, and all (except, perhaps, the middle) tipped with white. Length, 8 inches ; wing, 4.85; 

 tail, 4.00; tarsus, 1.21. 



Hab. — Rocky mountains ; south to Mexico, and along valley of Gila and Colorado and to San Diego, California. 



In this species the lateral tail feathers are about .25 of an inch shorter than the middle ones; 

 all are rather attenuated and rounded at the tip. The under parts are sometimes strongly 

 tinged with brownish yellow, most visible in raising the feathers of the breast. The spots on 

 the throat are arranged in two maxillary series, being otherwise sparse and small. There is a 

 faint indication of a pale superciliary stripe and of a whitish ring round the eye. The white 

 tip to the outer tail feather is about half an inch long ; in the others less. This white is 

 sometimes quite obscure. All the tail feathers are narrowly edged with the "color of the back ; the 

 exterior one with white. The bill is black, the feet dusky. 



An immature bird (8821) has the spots beneath larger ; the under parts tinged with brown ; 

 the upper parts c[uite conspicuously streaked. 



List of specimens. 



