72 Brewster on a Collect ion of Arizona Birds. 



voungest of these (No. 4S0. $'i. Camp Lowell. June 2). although well 

 feathered, has the wings and tail undeveloped, and was taken from the 

 nest. Its entire upper plumage is rustj brown with a chestnut tinge which 

 deepens on the rump and outer webs of the secondaries to decided chest- 

 nut brown. The general coloring of the under parts is pale fulvous with 

 a strong tinge of rustj chestnut across the breast, along the sides, and 

 over the anal region and crissum. The breast is obsoletely spotted, but 

 the plumage elsewhere, both above and below, is entirely immaculate. An 

 older bird (No. 577, Camp Lowell, June 23) with the wings and tail 

 fully grown out, differs in having the back (excepting a narrow anterior 

 space bordering on the nape), with the exposed webs and coverts of the 

 wings, and a broad tipping on the tail feathers, bright rusty; —while in a 

 third of about the same age (No. 6i.|, $, Camp Lowell, June 28), the 

 rusty color, although paler, is uniformly distributed over the entire upper 

 surface save upon the wings and tail feathers, which are only edged and 

 tipped with that color. This last example is so faintly marked beneath 

 that the plumage at first sight appears immaculate ; but a closer inspection 

 reveals a few spots here and there among the central feathers of the 

 breast. A fourth (No. 487, Camp Lowell. June 3). although apparently 

 no older, has the breast and sides spotted more sharply than in any of 

 the adults, while the rusty tinge above is chiefly confined to the rump, 

 posterior half of the back, and the outer webs of the wing feathers. 



Several of these young birds are so nearly similar to specimens of //. 

 bendirei in corresponding stages that they can be separated only with 

 great difficulty. The stouter bill and entirely black lower mandible of 

 palmeri may, however, always be depended upon as distinguishing 

 characters; and, morever, the pectoral spotting of bendirei \^ usually (but 

 not invariably) finer and sharper, and the rusty tinge above paler and 

 less extended. 



The adults present a good deal of variation, most of which is apparently 

 seasonal. Winter specimens have the lower abdomen, with the anal 

 region and crissum, rich rusty-fulvous, while the markings beneath are 

 similar in character to those of true curvirostris. and the spots equally 

 distinct, numerous and widely distributed. With the advance of the 

 season, a!id the consequent wear and tear of the plumage, the spots 

 gradually fade or disappear. Indeed some of the June specimens are 

 absolutely immaculate beneath, although most of them, like Mr. Ridg- 

 way's types, have a few faint markings on the abdomen. In this condition 

 the general coloring is also paler and grayer, and the fulvous of the 

 crissum and neighboring parts of"ten entirely wanting. 



But although the evidence of this series tends to demolish several of 

 the characters upon which palmeri has been based, enough remain to 

 separate it from its ally the true curvirostris of Mexico and the Rio 

 Grande Valley in Texas. The best of these, perhaps, is to be found in the 

 different marking of the tail-feathers. In curi'irosfris the three outer 

 pairs are broadly tipped with pure w'hite which, on the inner web. extends 

 twice as deep, basally. as on the outer ones, and has its boundaric- every- 



