70 



Sp. en. — Gray of the head confined to the lateral and posterior por- 

 tions of the piieum (as in L. tephrocotis var. tei)}irocotis) ; sexes very 

 dissimilar in shades of coloration ; general color black in the male, 

 dusky slate in the female. Wing, 3.80-4.20 (4.02) ; tail, 2.80-3.15 (2.97) ; 

 culmen, .40-.45 (.43) ; tarsus, .75-.80 (.77) ; middle toe, .55-.60 (.59). 



Male: General color black, darker than the frontal patch, deepest 

 anteriorly. Wing, 4.20; tail, 3.00-3.15 (3.05); culmen, .40-.45 (.43); 

 tarsus, .75; middle toe, .55-60 (.58). 



Female: General color dusky slate, lighter than the frontal patch, 

 and with a faint brownish cast on the dorsal region. Wing, 3.80-4.00 

 (3.90) ; tail, 2.80-3.00 (2.90) ; culmen, .42-.45 (.44) ; tarsus, .7V.80 (.79) ; 

 middle toe, .60. 



The first specimen of this species which came to my notice was the 

 on described in the " History of North American Birds " (vol. I, p. 505), 

 as probably the young of L. teijhrocotis var. tephrocotis. At the time 

 when this description was penned, strong doubts were entertained as to 

 its being really that species. The specimen was in molting X)lumage, 

 however, and was then considered a bird of the year, exchanging the 

 immature dress for the winter livery of the adult, the latter nearly com- 

 plete. The following remarks relating to this specimen, quoted from the 

 page cited above, show how strongly the propriety of referring it to teph- 

 rocotis was doubted : " Were it not unmistakably a bird of the year, it 

 would be considered almost a distinct species, so different is it from 

 adult specimens of tephrocotis.'''' This specimen was obtained by Dr. 

 Hayden's party, on the Uintah Mountains, Eastern Utah, September 

 20, 1870 (No. 60638, National Museum). No other specimens were seen, 

 until, in July, 1874, Mr. C. E. Aiken sent from Colorado Springs, Colo- 

 rado, four specimens, collected in April at Caiion City, in that Territory. 

 These specimens and the one mentioned above led to the description of 

 a new species of the genus in the "American Sportsman,"as above cited. 



The skins sent by Mr. Aiken are in the nuptial plumage, which may 

 be taken as an indication that the species breeds in Colorado. The pat- 

 tern of coloration is precisely similar to that of L. tephrocotis^ but the 

 totally difierent tints (black or dusky slate, instead of chocolate- brown), 

 and the very marked difference between the sexes, separate it at once 

 as a distinct species. It may be suggested that it is a melanism of teph- 

 rocotis; but, if this were so, there would be no such entire uniformity 

 of characters as is exhibited throughout the series of five specimens, 

 while in tephrocotis there is not the slightest sexual difference in colors. 



In the winter-plumaged specimen (No, 60638, Nat. Mus.), there is almost 

 as much pink on the abdomen as in L. australis, while the lesser wing- 

 coverts seem to form a uniform patch of this color — a delicate, soft, 

 peach-blossom-pink shade; the greater coverts and tertials are broadly 

 edged with pale clay-color, while the scapulars are widely bordered with* 

 the same ; the feathers of the breast are widely bordered with dull 

 w^hitish, and the feathers of the neck, all round, have narrower borders 

 of the same. The gray of the head is not so sharply defined as in the 

 spring male, but it is about the head that the most traces of the imma- 

 ture plumage remain. The bill is dull yellow, with a dusky tip. 



In the adult female, in spring, there is a less sharp outline to the ash 

 of the piieum, and the demarkat'ion between this and the dusky frontal 

 patch is not distinct, the dusky shading gradually along the medial line 

 into the color of the occiput. 



It is possible that this species may be the same bird described by 

 Pallas (Zoog. Eosso-As., II, 22) as '•^Fasser arctoa^fi, 1," as follows : " Ex 



