1S92.] Recent Literature. lol 



(P)ieiis and quiscitla seem to vary with the individual independently of the 

 coloring of other parts. Of the plumage of the head and neck "there are 

 three types of coloration with their various degrees of intergradation. 

 Briefly, these are (i) the purple type with more or less bronzy reflections, 

 this closely resembling the color of the same parts in djrit/'us: (2) the 

 steel-green or bluish-green; and (3) the steel-blue or purplish blue, pre- 

 viously described, which occurs in about twenty-five per cent of the spec- 

 imens examined." 



"Omitting all reference to the color of the head, as too variable a char- 

 acter to be used in diagnosis, we may know ceneus as a bird in which the 

 back and under parts are metallic brassy, or olivaceous bronze without 

 iridescent bars in any part of the plumage, ^iiiscnla assumes three 

 phases of coloration which merge into one another in the order named: 

 first, the bottle-green; second, tiie bronze-purple; and tiiird, the brassy 

 bluish green. In each of these phases the feathers of the back and under 

 parts are banded with iridescent bars of varying extent, ^iiiscalits qnh- 

 cula aglceus represents the highest development of phase No. i of quis- 

 ciila." The reader must not infer that all or nearly all specimens of 

 quiscula agree at all typically with one or the other of these three 'phases.' 

 For instance in a series of 51 from West Chester, Penn., only about half 

 that number could be referred to either of them, the remainder being va- 

 riously intermediate between them. 



Mr. Chapman proceeds to consider the series (of breeding males) of 

 quiscula in geographical sequence from the south northwaid, grouping 

 them bv States, and noting the numbers, actual and relative, in each 

 group that can be referred to each 'phase' or are intermediate between 

 them. The results are tabulated and show, for so limited a series (be- 

 tween three and four hundred), a fairly steady gradation from agicEus 

 ('phase No. i') toward alliens. His conclusions, as to the facts, are as 

 follows : " (i) ^niscalus ceneus, throughout a breeding range which ex- 

 tends from the Rio Grande Valley to British America and New Bruns- 

 wick, varies in coloration only in that comparatively limited part of its 

 habitat adjoining the area occupied by ^/eisca/us quiscula, with which, at 

 least from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, it completely intergrades. (2) 

 ^iiiscalus quiscula, an extremely variable form, assumes three phases of 

 coloration; the first reaches its extreme development at the southern limit 

 of the bird's range where the third phase is unknown, while the third 

 pha.^e is most highly developed at the bird's northern limit, where the 

 first phase is unknown. The second phase connects the first and third, 

 and is rarely found at either extreme, but is most abundant near the 

 centre of the bird's habitat where, it is to be noted, all three phases with 

 their connectants, occur together. (3) The exact relationships of quiscula 

 and (P.tieus in the lower Mississippi Valley and northward along the Alle- 

 ghanies to Pennsylvania are not at present known. (4) In the Allegha- 

 nies of Pennsylvania, in the Hudson Valley from Sing Sing to Troy, in 

 eastern Long Island, in Connecticut, and in Massachusetts as far north as 



