196 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



and the markings are all definite and distinct, while immature birds of tha 

 present species are of a nearly uniform ashy above, the suffusion of the breast 

 very light, and the streaks so indistinct as to be scarcely appreciable. In this 

 respect it resembles A. Bonapartei, with the different stages of which there is a 

 perfect parallelism. In some stages of plumage it approaches the A. Cooperi, 

 the resemblance being further enhanced by the slight emargination of the tail. 

 The greatly superior size of the latter, however, independently of its subgeneric 

 characters, at once distinguishes it. Some specimens show a tendency towards 

 the general dusky state of plumage also exhibited by both minutilla and macu- 

 lata, when the upper parts are very dark and nearly uniform, being scarcely 

 relieved by lighter margins of the feathers. 



The following detailed description which will serve to definitely characterize 

 this species in the plumage of the adult during the breeding season, and of the 

 young bird of the first fall, is taken from a very perfect male shot May 19th, at 

 Fort Resolution, and from a young male obtained in Nebraska during 'the latter 

 part of July. 



The bill is of moderate length, and very slender, expanded but slightly at tip, 

 and the point very-acute ; the grooves are long, extending quite to the expansion 

 of the tip, that of the lower mandible being narrow but distinct. The bill is 

 entirely black. The feathers encroach on the lower mandible much beyond 

 those on the upper, about half as far as those between the rami. Their upper 

 outline is about parallel with the culmen. There is much white about the 

 head ; the extreme forehead and the lower eyelid are white, while a broad ill- 

 defined band of the same passes over the eye. A narrow and well defined dusky 

 stripe passes from the eye to the nostril. The crown is streaked with dusky 

 brown and dull ochreous, and is darker along a broad medium stripe than at 

 the sides. The sides and back of the neck are much like the crown, but rather 

 lighter, the transition being gradual. The upper parts generally are of a dark 

 brownish black, every feather being edged with light reddish yellow ; on the 

 scapulars each feather is broadly bordered with bright buff, still more widely 

 at the end with a dull shade of the same, the extreme tip being white. On 

 most of the feathers the edging makes a deep, more or less irregular indenta- 

 tion, leaving the black only as a line along each side of the shaft. The long 

 tertials, the secondaries, and greater \ving coverts are dusky, fading into dull 

 white on the edges. The lesser coverts are very dark, with scarcely 

 lighter tips. The primaries are deep dusky, almost black, the shaft of the first 

 white, of the others mostly brownish. The inner primaries are very narrowly 

 edged on the outer vane with white. The tail coverts are black, the outer 

 series with sagittate spots of white. The central tail feathers which are 

 rounded and project but little beyond the rest, are brownish black, narrowly 

 edged with white ; the lateral light ashy, fading into white at the edges. The 

 chin and throat are white, and immaculate or nearly so. The jugulum, breast, 

 and sides to some distance have a very decided light brownish, or ochreous suf- 

 fusion, and the makings are rather sparse, rounded, and indistinct, in the mid- 

 dle of the breast nearly obsolete. They are largest and most conspicuous just 

 before the bend of the wing, where they gradually pass into the stripes of the 

 sides of the neck. The rest of the under parts including the axillars and under 

 wing coverts are white, immaculate. The tibial feathers are ashy ; the legs 

 and feet black. 



The young has the form and proportions much as in the adult. The white 

 about the head is much restricted, and the line over the eye so illy defined as 

 to be scarcely appreciable as such. The upper parts generally are of a dull 

 nearly uniform brownish ash, each feather with a shaft line of dusky, and 

 with a lighter tip. There are traces of the brownish black of the adult at in- 

 tervals, but more particularly on the scapulars, where the edgings are yellowish 

 white. The rump and upper tail coverts are nearly as dark as on the adult. 

 The suffusion of the jugulum and breast is a very light shade of reddish brown ; 



[July, 



