/ 
COLLURIO. ; 447 
tip only white, the rest are entirely black, except their concealed bases, which 
in all the feathers are white. 
(No. 38,423.) Total length, 8.50; wing, 4.05; tail, 4.25, its graduation, 
1.00; exposed portion of 1st primary, 1.50, of 2d, 2.60, of longest (measured 
from exposed base of Ist primary), 2.95; length of bill from forehead, .83, 
from nostril, .48, along gape, .95, depth, .33; tarsus, 1.12; middle toe and 
claw, .77, claw alone, .28; hind toe and claw, .64, claw alone, .32. 
Young birds are marked very much as those of C. ludovicianus, 
already described. There does not seem to be much difference in 
color between the sexes. Winter specimens appear inclined to a 
reddish tinge and obscure waves of dusky. 
The specimen described (No. 38,423) presents an extreme amount 
of white on the wings and tail. More frequently there is a rectangular 
patch of black on the inner web of outer tail feather (usually at 
distal end of basal half), and generally visible at the tips of under 
tail coverts, which becomes larger and larger in the next two 
feathers; the fourth, and sometimes fifth, with a narrow tip only of 
white. Scarcely any two specimens, however, agree exactly in this 
amount of black; in all, the extreme bases of the quills are white, 
excepting the innermost, which usually are black, unless when the 
white on the ends of the lateral tail feathers is of more than usual 
extent. 
In No. 38,420 the white of inner webs of secondaries is purer, 
and on the more exterior reaches to the shaft on the basal third, 
then passing off obliquely behind to the inner edge of the quill, not 
transversely. The other characters are much as described. This 
amount of white on the secondaries is, however, but seldom met with. 
No. 5,066, from Donana, N. M., has the hoary front so light as 
to appear in very abrupt contrast against the dusky stripe through 
the eye. 
In No. 8,721, from near San Francisco, the colors are much. 
darker than as described, the plumbeous of upper parts being as 
dark as in ludovicranus, and without any hoariness on forehead 
and side of vertex; more as in elegans. 
In general, specimens from the California coast are considerably 
darker than those from the Plains, very similar in color to C. ludo- 
vicianus ; the hoariness of forehead greatly reduced, sometimes 
scarcely appreciable. The sides and axillars are more plumbeous ; 
less, however, than in ludovicianus, and the upper tail coverts are 
always considerably and appreciably lighter than the back. 
Cape St. Lucas specimens are rather darker, especially on the 
