x6a 



GAME BI/iDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



central feathers; greater wing-coverts, scapulars, and innermost 

 secondaries like tbe back; rest of wing, pure white, with black 

 shafts to the primaries; the throat is white, sides of face and 

 breast, like the head and neck, but the breast and flanks arc- 

 more Hnely barred and vermiculated, while scattered about the 

 sides of head and along the flanks are many white feathers; rest 

 of under parts, thighs, and tarsi, pure white; loral space, black; 

 a crimson or scarlet comb over the eye; bill, black; claws, 

 horn color, with white tips. Total length, 135 inches; wing, 7i|; 

 tail, 45; tarsus, l^^^•, exposed culmen, g. 



It is possible that this specimen is not in what may be callerl 

 perfect summer plumage, as the throat is white. This part 

 would undoubtedly, for a few days at least, be colored like the 

 neck, but the plumage of these birds varies so from day to day 

 that it is only by accident that one is procured in what may be 

 termed the full and perfect summer dress. 



Female in Summer. — Head and entire upper parts, and most 

 of the wing, ochraceous, barred with black, the bars narrower 

 and more numerous on lower back and upper tail-coverts, with 

 most of the feathers tipped with white; primaries and second- 

 aries, white, the former with blackish brown shafts; throat, 

 neck, breast, flanks, and under parts, generally including under 

 tail-coverts, ochraceous, barred irregularly and narrowly with 

 black ; tail, clove-brown, with outer web finely mottled with buff 

 for two-thirds the basal length of central feathers, and growing 

 gradually less on the lateral ones ; bill, black ; claws, black, with 

 white tips. Total length, 13^ inches; wing, 7I; tail, 4f ; tarsus, ij 

 Winter Plumage is pure white, with black loral streak in the 

 male. 



