101 



— Forehead, crown, occiput, and na])e deep rusty-brown; featliers with 

 broad longitudinal streaks of deep black, llest of upper parts deep um- 

 ber, darkest on the back ; featliers of back and rump, the upper tail- 

 coverts, scapulars, and wing-coverts broadly bordered with rusty ; 

 scapulars with concealed white spots. Tail ashy-umber, tipped (more 

 broadly than in adult) with ashy-white, crossed by four broad bauds of 

 brownish-black, the last (or subterminal) of which is broadest, the first 

 concealed by the coverts. Secondaries and primaries similar in color 

 to the tail, but darker ; the first showing five indistinct darker bands, and 

 tipped (rather broadly) with pale cinnamon-rufous. Ear-coverts and 

 cheeks fulvous-white, thickly streaked with dark brown. Lower parts 

 white, washed with ochraceous on jugulum and breast; each feather 

 with a central longitudinal lanceolate stripe of clear umber, the shaft 

 black ; these streaks are very narrow on the throat, broadest on the 

 breast and flanks. Tibiae with transversely ovate spots and transverse 

 bars of reddish-umber; lower tail-coverts with narrow shaft-streaks 

 of darker brown. Lining of wing with cordate and ovate spots of dark 

 brown. 



Young female (42136, Orizaba, Mexico; M. Botteri. Type of var. 

 mexicanus in Hist. iST. Am. B., 232) : — Similar to the young male, but 

 feathers of back, etc., less broadly margined with rusty; ochraceous 

 wash on lower parts more decided ; stripes beneath broader and less 

 lanceolate, on the sides broadly ovate, and on the flanks in form of 

 broad transverse bars ; tibiiB more thickly spotted transversely ; lower 

 tail-coverts immaculate. Wing, 9.00; tail, 7.80; tarsus, 2.25; middle 

 toe, 2'.50. Fourth quill longest; third shorter than fifth; second iuter- 

 mediate between sixth and seventh; first, 2.90 shorter than longest. 

 Graduation of tail, 0.90. 



Remarlis. — Although occasional individuals from Mexico lead at first 

 to the impression of a decided difference from the usual style of the 

 Eastern United States, they lose their apparently distinctive features 

 when a large series is brought together for comparison. As a rule, adult 

 males from Mexico and the western districts of the United States 

 agree with each other, and difl'er from the average style of the same 

 plumage in birds from the Eastern United States in having the rufous 

 of the lower parts in greater amount in proportion to the white, that 

 of the tibife being often almost unbroken ; there is usually also less of 

 concealed white on the scapulars. The most typical example of the 

 so-called A. mexicanus, however, is one from Massachusetts, described 

 on p. 99. The difference between eastern and western birds of this 

 species is more marked in the young than in the adult plumage, 

 however; and there seems to be great constancy in the diflereuces 

 observable. Thus, the western birds are darker-colored throughout, 

 the brown markings occupying larger areas, and the white portions 

 of a less pure color, being more or less suffused or stained with pale 

 ochraceous. The markings on the tibia? are almost always transversely- 

 cordate spots instead of longitudinal streaks. This darker style of 

 plumage is characteristic of the entire AVestern Province, east to the 

 Missouri Plains ; but along the southern border and in Mexico, birds 

 more like the eastern style seem to prevail. 



Upon the whole, it is found impossible to characterize by tangible, 

 and, at the same time, constant, characters, two geographical races of 

 this species ; for, while a barely appreciable difference characterizes 

 the majority of the birds of either region, the cases of individuals 

 which correspond in everj- particular being found in the region of 

 which they are not typical are too numerous to warrant the considera- 



