468 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



a*. Inner webs of secondaries white quite to the shaft for about the basal half, the 

 white then abruptly narrowed to less than half the width of inner web, but 

 very abruptly defined against the dusky ; tail-feathers without any white at 

 base ; bill from nostril .60. 



Adult : Above very dark slate-gray, including upper tail-coverts, darker on 

 head, where not becoming lighter next to black of lores and frontlet, the 

 longer scapulars, however, passing terminally or exteriorly into whitish ; 

 lower parts bluish gray, becoming white along median line, including 

 whole chin and throat and under tail-coverts; length (mounted speci- 

 men) about 8.75, wing 4.20, tail 4.40, exposed culmen 1.00, bill from nos- 

 tril .60, depth at base .39, tarsus 1.20. Hob. Said to be California, but 

 possibly some portion of the Old World. 



L. robustus (BAIRD). Baird's Shrike. 1 



FAMILY VIREONID^. THE VIREOS. (Page 323.) 



Genera. 



a 1 . Lateral toes very unequal in length, the inner one, with its claw, not reaching 



beyond base of middle claw; legs and feet weaker. 



& 1 . Wing shorter than tail, extremely rounded, the fifth or sixth quill longest, 

 and second shorter than secondaries ; tail much rounded, the difference 

 between longest and shortest feathers nearly equal to length of bill from 

 nostril ; bill weaker, relatively broader and more depressed at base. 

 (The single known species with whole top of head and hind-neck, 

 wings, and tail bright olive-green; back, scapulars, rump, throat, 

 breast, sides, and flanks uniform slate-gray ; chin and belly white ; wing 



about 2.30.) Neochloe* 



b*. Wing equal to or longer than tail, less rounded, the third or fourth quill 

 longest, and second much longer than secondaries; tail nearly even, or, if 

 rounded, the difference between longest and shortest feathers much less 

 than length of bill from nostril ; bill stouter, and relatively narrower and 

 higher at base. (Coloration very variable, but never at all resembling 



Neochloe.} Vireo. (Page 469.) 



a*. Lateral toes nearly equal in length, the inner one, with its claw, reaching de- 

 cidedly beyond base of middle claw ; legs and feet stouter. 



pies of the Californian bird certainly cannot be matched by specimens from any portion of the country east of 

 the Sierra Nevada, while there is not more of individual variation than exists in the other two forms. The re- 

 semblance is, on the whole, closer to the darker-colored specimens of true L. ludovicianus (from the Gulf States), 

 but the under parts are constantly much darker, and, in seventeen of the twenty-one specimens now before me, 

 very perceptibly (sometimes distinctly) undulated on the breast with grayish, this character being very excep- 

 tional in L. ludoricianut and still more rarely observable in L. ercnbitoride*. 



1 Laniut ludovicianiu, var. robuttut BAIRD, Am. Nat. vii. 1873, 608. Lanius robtitttit GADOW, Cat. B. Brit. 

 Mus. viii. 1883, 243. (See especially the important paper by Leonhard Stejneger in Proc. Philad. Acad. 1885, 

 pp. 91-96.) 



8 Neochloe SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1857, 213. Type, N. brevipennit SCL. (Hab. State of Vera Cruz, Mexico.) 



