510 APPENDIX. 



the winter plumage, while the red is at the same time much intensified, induces us 

 to modify our views expressed on pages 504, 505, in regard to Mr. Allen's Colorado 

 specimens, and to regard them as representing a race which must have the head 

 dusky at all seasons, and not a seasonal phase of var. tej^hrocotis. The winter 

 plumage probably differs from that described above only in the red being of a soft, 

 rather dilute, rosy tint, instead of a harsh bright carmine ; the bill is also proba- 

 bly yellow in winter, since in the breeding specimens of griseinuclia from Alaska 

 the bill is black, while in winter examples it is yellow, with only the point dusky. 

 A series of seven fine specimens sent in by Mr. J. H. Batty, the naturalist of 

 Dr. Hayden's expedition, confirm the validity of this form, and even so much as 

 suggest to us the possibility of its eventually proving a distinct species, more 

 nearly related to L. hrunneinucha than to L. tephrocotis. They were collected on 

 some one of the high peaks of Colorado, but as Mr. Batty's notes have not come 

 to hand we cannot tell which. The specimens are all males, and resemble Mr. 

 Allen's specimens, except that they are perhaps more highly colored. They all 

 have the throat tinged with carmine, and in some the tinge is very deep, — on one 

 extending over the whole breast and throat, up to the cheeks and bill. We hope 

 to learn soon from Mr. Batty some interesting details regarding this series. 



Centronyx bairdi (I, 531). The past year has been a remarkably fortunate 

 one for our knowledge of this species, and, owing to the investigations of Mr. C. 

 E. Aiken, Dr. Cones, and Mr. H. W. Henshaw, it cannot now be classed among the 

 rare birds of our country ; the total number of specimens collected' by these gentle- 

 men amounting to more than one hundred. The first example — the second one 

 then known — was collected by Mr. Aiken in El Paso County, Colorado, October 9, 

 1872, and, being in the soft autumnal plumage, appeared to be so distinct from the 

 type that, after a careful comparison of the two specimens, Mr. Ridgway wrote Mr. 

 Aiken that it was in his opinion difterent, and accompanied his letter by a com- 

 pai*ative diagnosis of the two supposed species. The Colorado specimen was then 

 described in the American Naturalist (Vol. VII, April, 1873, p. 236) as Centronyx 

 ochrocephalus, Aiken. On the 6th of INIay, 1873, Mr. Aiken obtained another 

 specimen at the same locality ; and this one, being forwarded to Mr. Ridgway for 

 comparison, proved to be so decidedly intermediate between the types of G. bairdi 

 and C. " ochrocej)hah(s " that they imraediatel}' suggested the probability of their 

 being seasonal stages of one species, — C. bairdi representing the very faded and 

 much abraded midsummer dress ; C. ochrocephalus being the autumnal dress, 

 probably of a young bird, with the pattern of coloration distinct, and the colors 

 soft and deep ; and the May specimen the spring plumage, just intermediate be- 

 tween the two others. 



During the past summer (1873) Dr. Coues collected about seventy specimens along 

 the northern border of Dakota, from just west of the Pembina Mountains to the 

 second crossing of the Mouse River. They frequented the open prairie exclusively, 

 associating in vast numbers with Neocorys spraguei and Plectrophanes ornatus, these 

 three being the most abundant and characteristic birds of the prairie. By the 

 middle of July young birds were already observed ; and, equally young ones being 

 taken in the middle of August, it is presumed that two broods were raised. The 

 splendid suite of specimens brought in by Dr. Coues comprises both adult and 



