554 Oberholser, Races of Quiscalus quiscula. [o c t. 



purple, (3) purplish blue or bluish purple, (4) shining metallic 

 green, the last of which seems to be of rather rare occurrence. 

 The head, rump, and lower parts each have four similar color 

 phases. In many cases, in the same individual, these do not all 

 correspond with the color phases of the back. Consequently the 

 intermediates between these phases and the various combinations 

 of colors on the different parts of the bird, together with the ab- 

 sence or presence of bars on the upper and lower parts, make a 

 bewildering variety of coloration. In fact, no two specimens 

 appear to be exactly alike. 



The geographic distribution of this race is confined in general to 

 the region east of the Allegheny Mountains, but in the south it is 

 extended considerably farther west. Birds from Garret County 

 on the Alleghenian plateau in extreme western Maryland are 

 intermediates between Quiscalus quiscula ridgwayi and Quiscalus 

 quiscula ceneus, and represent there the extreme western limit of 

 the former. 



Quiscalus quiscula seneus Ridgway. 



Quiscalus ceneus Ridgway, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, XXI, 

 June (= July), 1869, p. 134. 



Chars. Subsp. — Similar to Quiscalus quiscula ridgwayi, but somewhat 

 smaller, and with posterior upper and lower parts uniform brownish bronze, 

 without differently colored bars. 1 



Type Locality. — Mount Carmel, Wabash County, southeastern Illi- 

 nois. 



Geographic Distribution. — Central and eastern North America. 

 Breeds north to central Labrador, James Bay in northern Ontario, Fort 

 Churchill in northern Manitoba, and to southern Mackenzie; west to south- 

 western Mackenzie, western Alberta, western Montana, western Wyoming, 

 central Colorado, northwestern and west central Texas; south to central 

 southern Texas, northern Louisiana, western Tennessee, central Kentucky, 

 central West Virginia, southwestern Pennsylvania, southwestern and cen- 

 tral New York, northern Connecticut, and northern Rhode Island; east 

 to eastern Massachusetts, eastern Maine, Nova Scotia, and eastern New- 

 foundland. Winters south to southern Louisiana, southern Alabama, 

 southern South Carolina, and probably to Florida. 



i For measurements of this race, cf. Ridgway, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 50, II, 1902. 

 p. 219. 



