2398 The Zoologist— December, 1870. 



winter to the extreme southern coast of New England. Specimens iu 

 all American cabinets. 



Adult, summer plumage. — Head and neck all around rich dark 

 brown, which changes on the back of the neck into dark slaty brown, 

 the colour of the rest of the upper parts : this hue is nearly uniform, 

 but most of the feathers of the back and rump have usually just 

 appreciably lighter and more grayish brown tips. Secondaries nar- 

 rowly, distinctly tipped with pure white. Exposed portions of 

 primaries dusky blackish, the shafts of the few outermost, and the 

 greater part of the inner webs of the whole, lighter (more grayish 

 brown), tending to grayish white towards the bases. Under wing- 

 coverts mostly white, variegated with dusky along the edges of the 

 wing, and the greater coverts mostly of this latter colour. Eutire 

 under parts from tlie throat pure white ; the whole length of the sides 

 under the wings streaked with dusky or slaty brown. Bill black ; 

 mouth yellow ; iris brown ; legs and feet blackish. 



Adult, winter plumage. — As before ; the rich brown of the head 

 darker in hue, and more like the rest of the upper parts ; the white of 

 the under jiarts extending to the bill, upon the sides of the head to or 

 slightly above the level of the commissure, upon the side of the neck 

 so far around as to leave only a narrow isthmus of dark colour, which 

 is somewhat interrupted by white mottling. The white shades 

 gradually into the darker colour, without a trenchant line of demarca- 

 tiou, and varies greatly in its precise outline. Usually a pretty-well 

 defined spur of dark colour runs out backwards from the eye into the 

 white of the sides of the occiput, the spur occupying the borders of 

 the postocular furrow in the plumage. On the sides of the lower neck, 

 just in advance of the wings, the dark colour extends in a point further 

 than it does higher up, showing the extent of the dark brown of the 

 summer vesture. 



Young, of the first winter, are coloured precisely like the adults, 

 but may be always distinguished by their much shorter and slenderer 

 bills, which are in great part light coloured (yellowish) ; the feet are 

 also much tinged anteriorly with yellowish. Fledglings are brownish 

 dusky, the breast and abdomen white ; and with a few dull whitish 

 streaks upon the head and hind neck. 



Dimensions : adult. — Length about 17'00 ; extent 30'00 ; wing 800 ; 

 tail 2'25, tarsus ViO; middle toe and claw 2"10; inner toe and claw 

 1*70; outer toe and claw2'00; bill along culuien l'7o, along rictus 

 250; along gonys 115; depth at base '65; width at same point "SO. 



