70 Mearns's Description of Unusually Developed Species. 



faintest margins of ash. Professor Baird * has remarked : " It is quite 

 possible that in the full-plumaged male the entire throat may be black, as 

 there is a tendency to this in some specimens." 



2. Setophaga ruticilla, (Linne) Swainson. Redstart. — A male of 

 this species, which I took here, is also remarkable for its high state of devel- 

 opment (No. 1003 $, May 17, 1876, E. A. M.). It is a fully adult and 

 highly pluraaged bird. Its chief peculiarity consists in the extreme 

 development of the orange-red on the ventral surface, and the restriction 

 of the black to the forepart of the breast, where its margin is quite 

 sharply defined, being abruptly intercepted by the orange-red, which oc- 

 cupies the whole under parts and sides of the body, with the exception of the 

 imder tail-coverts, which are white at base, the longest feathers being black- 

 ish. The orange-red at the base of the rectrices and reniiges is also much 

 less restricted than in the normally plumaged individual. 



3. Ampelis cedrorum, (Linne) Sclater. Cedar-Bird. — I have been 

 so struck by the great variation in different specimens of this species, in 

 regard to the red wax-like appendages, that I have taken particular pains 

 to procure a large series of specimens illustrating this difference. In this 

 series I can scarcely detect any sexual difference in that respect, except 

 that the particularly well-developed specimens are all males. In the 

 normal plumage the waxen appendages are confined to the tips of the 

 secondary remiges, but in my cabinet are several specimens which have 

 them affixed to the primaries, and in several instances even to the rec- 

 trices ; but they are usually small and few in number. One specimen has 

 several of these attachments to the primaries, which are nearly as well 

 developed as those on the secondaries. But the most remarka1)le speci- 

 men is a handsome male (No. 545, ^ ad., April 11, 1875, Highland Falls, 

 N. Y., E. A. M.), having these ornaments attached, not only to each of 

 the secondaries and three of the primaries, but each of the rectrices is 

 embellished by a well-developed red appendage. Several other specimens 

 have large red tips to each of the rectrices ; and one (No. 1558 ^, 

 Feb. 23, 1878, E. A. M.) has five of its primary remiges (5th to 9th) tipped 

 with yellow. Professor Baird t says : " A specimen from Guatemala 

 (No. 50,455 ^) is almost identical with examples from the United States, 

 but differs in having a small spot of yellow at the tip of each primary ; 

 also there are red appendages on the tip of a few tail-feathers, as well as 

 the longest feather of the loiver tail-coverts." X 



While speaking of this species, it may be well to add, that in specimens 

 taken in worn plumage, late in summer, the colors are very much bleached, 

 all of the colors being very much paler ; the white band across the fore- 



* Birds of N. Am., by Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence (Vol. IX of Pacific Eail- 

 road Reports), p. 244, 1858. 



t Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Birds N. Am., Vol. I, p. 401, 1874. 

 J Italics my own. 



