402 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



Plumage of adults in summer: "Top of head sepia brown with darker 

 streaking and median ashy line ; rest of upper parts ashy or smoke gray, 

 most pronounced on the nape, obscurely streaked on the neck and rump, 

 broadly striped on back and upper tail coverts with deep brown. Each fea- 

 ther is centrally clove brown, merging into an outer zone of sepia or van- 

 dyke, broadly edged (narrowly on crown) with gray which on the inner 

 webs of the median feathers of the crown, on the back, and on the tertiaries, 

 becomes conspicuously ashy white and which forms two obscure wing bars 

 at the tips of the greater and median coverts. Quill feathers of the wings 

 and tail deep hair brown above, paler below, the two outer retrices paler than 

 the rest, the shafts lighter colored, the webs (chiefly the outer) narrowly 

 edged with ashy white. Under parts white, streaked rather broadly with 

 brown along the sides from the bill to the tail and on the breast, giving the 

 effect of spotting when the plumage is disarranged. . . . The chin and jugu- 

 lum are immaculate and, together with a malar stripe, broadening posteriorly, 

 are pure white. A broad superciliary line is canary yellow, becoming ashy 

 posteriorly. The orbital ring is whitish, more or less tinged with yellow. 

 The auriculars are ashy or brown tinged, the lores paler. Lining of wing 

 and longer under tail coverts .... white with dusky shaft streaks. Bend of 

 wing yellow . . . ." (Dwight). Plumage of adults in autumn: "Above hoary, 

 even grayer than in spring dress, owing to the broad ashy edgings of the 

 feathers. The russet on the wings is more pronounced, the Vandyke zone of 

 the dorsal feathers is broader, and the superciliary line is ashy white or only 

 slightly tinged with yellow. Beneath a slight buffy cast prevails except on 

 the chin, abdomen, and lower tail coverts, and the streakings are suffused, 

 and paler and rustier than in spring." (Dwight). Young of the year: "Dif- 

 fers from the adults in the brownish, rather than grayish tints above, in the 

 richer, deeper russet on the wings, and in the decided buffy wash that suf- 

 fuses the head, the neck and the under parts. This bufliness is most marked 

 on the sides and breast, and it strongly tinges the malar stripe and aiuricu- 

 lars." (Dwight). Wing 2.89; culmen 0.43 ; tarsus 0.87; tail 2.24. 



Geog. Dist. — Breeding only on Sable Island, Nova Scotia ; wintering from 

 Sable Island rather scattering along the coast to Virginia and rarely to 

 Georgia. 



County Records. — Cumberland; transient, rare in spring, common in 

 autumn, confined to the seashore, (Brown, C. B. P., p. 13; first taken in 

 Maine at Cape Elizabeth, March 20, 1875, (Brown, R. & G. 6, p. 81 ; one at 

 Old Orchard, March 28, 1882, (Brown) ; two specimens between Pine Point 

 and Old Orchard, January 23, 1886, (Goodale, Auk 3, p. 277). Knox; rare, 

 one on Little Green Island, (Rackliff). Sagadahoc ; one in spring, (Spinney) ; 

 one taken at Seguin Island, October 11, 1900, by Captain Spinney, (Norton, 

 J. M. 0. S. 1904, p. 45). 



Though data is not at hand to prove the fact, it seems very 



likely that this species occurs along the coast west of Penob- 



