Vol. XVIIIH \lo\VK, A Study of Macrorhamphus. 1 59 



to the northwest of it, perhaps to the looth meridian of longitude.^ 

 Reek's mention^of it as breeding in Newfoundland is too vaguely 

 stated for recognition. 



Migratory Routes. — The migratory route of this species, as 

 will be seen by the accompanying map, is down the Atlantic 

 coast, becoming less marked as it progresses southward, until at 

 the Carolina's it seems to pass in the main off the coast, perhaps 

 to the West Indies and Bermuda where it has been recorded.^ 



The specimens obtained in the Western States are no doubt 

 stragglers, offshoots from the main migration ; those from Lower 

 California and Mexico, wintering birds. 



Characteristics of mnuner plumage : yl(f«//5. — Upper parts black, the 

 feathers lightly edged with -white or bufty, hardly alterirg =the almost 

 black appearance of the back and crown. Uppermost tail-coverts white, 

 spotted with black ; tail feathers white barred with black and ivhite, the 

 median ones rarelv with pale buff. Breast je/Zoww// rufous, spotted well 

 down on the abdomen. 



Characteristics of plumage in transition stages. — M. griseus can be gen- 

 erally distinguished by the black and tvhitc barred tail feathers, and je/- 

 lorvish shade of rufous underparts, as long as any of this color is percep- 

 tible. Also by the spotted, not barred, uppermost tail-coverts. 



Characteristics of plumage in winter. — M. griseus can generally be told 

 by the close spotting oi the uppermost tail-coverts. 



Characteristic plumage of young. — Upper parts fuscous bordered and 

 barred with buff, breast paler, very faintly marked. 



1 Wright, teste Macoun, Birds of Canada, Part I, pp. 153, 154- 



^ Canadian Nat., Vol. V, new series, 1870, p. 294. 



3 Cory, Cat. of West Indian Birds, p. 92; Reid, Biids of Bermuda, Bull. U. 

 S. Nat. Mus., No. 25, 1884, pp. 233, 234. 



'' Taken from breeding specimens or birds having attained or still in the breed- 

 ing plumage, either in proximity of their breeding grounds or from the centre 

 of their migration routes, and which were absolutely identifiable from their 

 coloration. 



*In one extreme specimen, perhaps wrongly sexed, 2.21. 



