

193 



which was distributed, as its habitat was then known, over the entire 

 region between the Alleghauy and Rocky Mountains, and also the in- 

 terior of British America, besides the eastern portion of the latter 

 country, and southward to Maine. Not a single specimen had then, 

 nor has since, been seen from any part of this vast extent of terri- 

 tory, which approached in characters the form peculiar to the south- 

 ern Atlantic states Q. purpureus. The latter was at that time sup- 

 posed to extend northward to Nova Scotia; this mistake being 

 brought about by the entire want of specimens from the New England 

 states. Abundant material since received from all points along the 

 Atlantic coast, however, shows that only Q. ceneus is found from New 

 York City and Long Island northeastward, and that it is only as far 

 north as northern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania that purpu- 

 reus extends, except as a straggler. Even at Washington, I). C., ceneus 

 is by no means rare, but, strange to say, when mixed with purpureus, 

 still retains its own characteristics. In the parks of that city I have 

 seen pairs of both species walking tamely about on the grass, but 

 never saic the two forms paired together, and could even distinguish the 

 two by their different appearance and actions before I was near 

 enough to distinguish by coloration. The proportionate numbers of 

 the two at Washington are about one pair of ceneus to fifty or seventy- 

 five pairs of purpureus. Nearer the coast, and especially farther south- 

 ward, east of the Alleghanies, the former disappears altogether. My 

 present view is, that ceneus, purpureus and aglceus, are three climatic, 

 or geographical races, of one species ; at least they are descended 

 from one primitive stock ; purpureus is intermediate between the two 

 opposite extremes or most widely differentiated forms, ceneus and 

 aglceus, but more so in habitat than in characters, for while purpureus 

 passes by a gradual transition into aglceus through specimens from 

 northern Florida, ceneus is almost abruptly separated, and, even when 

 associated geographically, preserves its own distinctive characters 

 with such unusual uniformity that it is a question whether it is not 

 already differentiated beyond the "varietal stage." 



123. PERISOREUS CANADENSIS, var. CAPITALIS Baird. 



CH. (61,084, Henry's Fork, Wyoming Ter. ; F. V. Hayden.) Above 

 flue light bluish plumbeous, becoming much lighter on the anterior 

 portion of the back; tertials, secondaries, wing-coverts, primaries 

 and tail feathers passing into whitish terminally, forming on the latter 

 quite broad and distinct tips. A nuchal patch of a tint slightly darker 

 than the back, and separated from the latter by the hoary whitish of 

 the anterior dorsal region. Whole of the head, except the nuchal 

 patch, with the anterior lower parts, as far as the breast, pure white; 

 rest of the lower parts ashy-white, becoming gradually more ashy 



