The Zoologist— September, 1870. 2295 



to any remarkable degree. In apparently equally adult specimens, 

 the two series of while feathers, which form conspicuous stripes on the 

 sides of the vertex and nape, vary much in length. Sometimes they 

 spread out on the sides of the hind-neck to almost as great an extent 

 as is witnessed in the most highly-plumaged specimens of Anliquus ; 

 again they may stop abruptly on the occiput, or at least on the nape. 

 The comparative amount of dusky and plumbeous on the upper parts 

 is various, as is also the intensity of either of these hues. Thus a 

 specimen from Japan in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy 

 has the upper parts, including the wing-coverts, bluish ashy, or bluish 

 plumbeous, light enough to form a marked contrast with the band of 

 nearly black which crosses the nuchal region, and descends on either 

 side under the wings. In this specimen, also, the bill is blackish, 

 although it is evidently an adult bird, having a crest an inch long. There 

 is sometimes much white on the eyelids, sometimes none. The outline 

 of the white on the sides of the hind head and of the neck varies ; the 

 younger the bird, the more the white encroaches on these parts. 



It is not ascertained positively that the crest which so strongly 

 characterizes perfect specimens of this species is a constant feature, 

 that is, obtained at a certain age, and ever afterwards worn. Very 

 possibly, it is only assumed during the breeding season ; and falls off 

 afterwards, so that perfectly adult winter specimens may be without 

 it. It is at all events not to be enumerated among the infallible 

 diagnostic points of the species. 



Compared with S. antiquus, the species is at once distinguished, 

 when in adult breeding plumage, by the presence of a crest, and the 

 different extent of the white stripes and streaks upon the head, nape 

 and neck. (Consult descriptions above given). These differences 

 aside, it is a larger bird, on an average, though some specimens do not 

 exceed in size some examples of Antiquus. The bill is slenderer, 

 though not necessarily longer, more acute at the tip, comparatively 

 not so deep at the base, and rather less compressed ; the culmen, rictus 

 and gonys straighter. The identification of very young birds, how- 

 ever, is sometimes attended with difficulty ; and some specimens in 

 the present collections cannot, in fact, be satisfactorily determined. 

 This state of affairs, however, is by no means unparalleled in other 

 cases of perfectly distinct species, and by no means militates against 

 the belief in the specified distinction of the two birds now under 

 consideration. The adults cannot by any possibility be mistaken for 

 each other. 



