276 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



brown, and with quadrate spots of white on outer webs. Rump uniform blackish-brown ; 

 upper tail-coverts tipped and banded with black. Tail clear brownish-black, crossed with 

 six sharply defined narrow bands of white, the last of which is terminal, and the first two 

 concealed by the upper coverts. Lining of the wing nearly uniform pale rufous, with very 

 sparse, deeper rufous, somewhat transverse spots; imder surface of primaries silvery white, 

 crossed by broad bands, these where the white is clearest being pale rufous, bordered with 

 dusky, but as the white grows more silvery they darken into black; the longest (fourth) 

 has eight of these spots, including the subterminal, very broad one. Fourth quill longest ; 

 fifth, just perceptibly shorter; third, a little shorter; second, considerably longer than 

 sixth; first equal to ninth. Wing, 13.00; tail, 8.50; tarsus, 2.90; middle toe, 1.33. 



Adult female (11.991 Washington, D. C. ; Dr. W. W^allace). Generally similar to the 

 male, but rufous more extended, this tinging the outer webs of secondaries and primaries. 

 On the under parts the rufous is rather deeper, and the tibi« are strongly barred, and even 

 the lower tail-coverts have obsolete spots of the same. Wing, 13.75; tail, 9.00; tarsus, 

 2.90; middle toe, 1.50. 



Younger (41,083, Washington, D. C. ; Dr. Coues). Upper plumage precisely as in 

 adult, but the black prevailing on head above, 'and nape. Beneath ochraceous-white, 

 deepest on the tibiee ; breast, abdomen, sides, and tibiae, with diamond-shaped spots of 

 dark rufous-brown, connected along the shaft of the feathers, running thus, in a peculiar, 

 longitudinal, chain-like series (19.50; 42.50; cere, legs, and feet bright chrome-yellow; 

 anterior scales of tarsus with greenish tinge). 



Young male (No. 1,210). Ground-color of head, neck, and under parts white; feathers 

 of head and neck, with medial stripes of dark clear vandyke-brown, leaving a superciliary 

 space, and the ear-coverts scarcely striped ; a blackish suffusion over cheeks, forming a 

 " mustache," and large longitudinal spot of the same on middle of throat ; breast, abdo- 

 men, sides, and flanks, with rather sparse, irregularly sagittate spots of clear vandyke- 

 brown, those on the sides of breast more longitudinal ; tibige, with a faint ochraceous tinge, 

 and with sparse, small, and irregular specks of brown ; lower tail-coverts with a very few 

 distant isolated bars of the same. Upper parts generally, clear dark vandyke-brown; 

 interscapulars and wing-coverts edged (most broadly beneath the surface) with pale rufous; 

 middle wing-coverts with much white spotting on upper webs, partially exposed ; wing- 

 coverts generally, and scapulars, narrowly bordered with white; secondaries narrowly 

 tipped with white, and crossed with about four (exposed) bands of paler grayish-brown; 

 primaries inclining to black; faintly margined at ends, with whiti.sh ; outer webs anterior 

 to the emargination, rufous-white, with distant, narrow bars of blackish, these widening 

 on inner quills; upper tail-coverts white with transverse spots of blackish. Tail dark 

 vandyke-brown, narrowly tipped with white, and crossed with numerous narrow bands 

 of pale grayish-brown, these obsolete towards the base. Lining of the wing pale ochra- 

 ceous, with a few irregularly cordate spots of dark brown toward edge of wing; under 

 surface of primaries mostly white, the dusky bars not extending across the web, except 

 on inner quills. Wing, 13.25; tail, 9.30; tarsus, 2.85; middle toe, 1.40. 



Young female (11,994, Washington, D. C, January; C. Drexler). Almost precisely sim- 

 ilar; tibiae unspotted ; light bands of the tail more sharply defined basally, and pale mottled 

 rufous, instead of pale ashy brown. Wing, 14.50 ; tail, 9.60 ; tarsus, 3.10; middle toe, 1.45. 



Hab. Eastern N. Am. ; south to Florida ; west to Texas and the tributaries of the 

 Missouri. 



Localities: Orizaba, Scl. 1857, 211; S. E. Texas, Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 325 (breeds); 

 Iverness Shore, England (Feb. 26, 1863), Newcome, Ibis, 1865, 549. 



LIST OF SPECIMENS EXAMINED. 



National Museum, 19 ; Philadelphia Academy, 14; Boston Society, 8; Mus. Cambridge, 

 16; Cab. G. N. Lawrence, 4; Coll. R. Ridgway, 4. Total, 65. 



