BIRDS — LIOTKICHIDAE — HARPORHYNCHUS RUFUS. 



353 



List of specimens. 



HARPOKHYNCHUS RUFUS, Cab. 



Brown Thrush. 



Turdus rufus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 293.— Vieillot, Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 4 ; pi. lix.— Wilson, Am. 



Orn. II, 1810, 83 ; pi. xiv.— Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 102: V, 1839, 441 ; pi. 116. 

 Orpheus rufus, SwAinson, F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 187.— Nuttall, Man. I, 1832, 328.- Ann. Syn. 1839, 88.— Ib. 



Birds Amer. 

 Mtmus rvfus, Gray, Genera, 1844- '49. 

 Toxoslomn rufum, Cabanis, Wiegm. Archiv, 1847, i, 207. 



Melhriopterus, Reichenbach, Av. Syst. Nat. 1850, pi. Iv. (Figure taken from this species according to Gray.) 

 Harporhynchus rufus, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851, 82. 

 Thrasher; Sandy Mocker ; French Mocking Bird ; Vulgo. 



Sp. Ch. — Fifth quill longest ; the third, fourth, and sixth, little shorter ; second equal to ninth. Exposed portion of the bill 

 shorter than the head. Outline of lower mandible straight. Above light cinnamon red; beneath pale rufous white with 

 longitudinal streaks of dark brown, excepting on the chin, throat, middle of the belly, and under tail coverts. These spots ante- 

 riorly, are reddish brown in their terminal portion. The inner surface of the wing and tlie inner edges of the primaries are 

 cinnamon; the concealed portion of the quills otherwise is dark brown. The median and greater wing coverts become blackish 

 brown towards the end, followed by white, producing two conspicuous bands. The tail feathers are all rufous, the external 

 ones obscurely lipped with whitish ; the shafls of the same color with the vanes. Length, 11.15 ; wing, 4.15 ; tail, 5.20 ; 

 tarsus, 1.30. 



Hab. — Eastern N. America to Missouri river, and perhaps to high central plains. 



Among the series before me are several specimens (5651, 5652, 4703) differing in some notice- 

 able points. They are considerably larger than Pennsylvania ones, with decidedly longer tail 

 and wings. The under parts are more decidedly rufous white ; the white band on the wyigs 

 tinged with the same. The concealed jiortion of the quills (including the shafts) is much 

 darker brown, and the shafts of the tail feathers are dark brown, conspicuously different from 

 the vanes. The spots on the breast are considerably darker, showing little, if any, of the 

 reddish brown. Length, 11.50; wing, 4.50; tail, 5.75; tarsus, 1.35. 



These specimens are associated with others from the same locality, precisely similar to Penn- 

 sylvania ones. They are different Lrom H. longirostris, though intermediate between this and 

 rufus. Whether it be proper or not to erect them into a different species from the latter, as 

 they certainly are from the former, is a question that I am not prepared to decide. A similar 

 relation betw<;en eastern and western races is referred to under the head of the mocking bird, 

 {Mimus polyglottus.) As a strongly marked variety, at least, it may be well to call it H. longi- 

 cauda. 



Young birds are much as in the adult, the back sometimes streaked obsoletely with dusky. 



45 b 



