113 



tail-coverts and the tail itself have a narrow terminal margin of white. 

 The lower plumage of these two is strikingly different, however, 

 although iTi both the rufous greatly predominates over the white in 

 amount. In the Chiriqui specimen, the rufous is nearly uniform 

 across the breast, along the sides, and on the tibite, being broken on 

 these parts only by small, transverse, oblong spots of white, these 

 bars becoming larger on the abdomen, where the relative proportion of 

 the two colors is about equal; the rufous markings lack the usual mar- 

 ginal suffusion of plumbeous, and the darker shaft-streaks are so nearly 

 obsolete as to be seen only upon very close inspection. In the Utah spec- 

 imen, the rufous markings of the lower parts are remarkable chiefly for 

 their uniformity of size and distribution and for the distinctness of the 

 marginal suffusion of plumbeous, which gives a peculiarly dark aspect to 

 these markings. The darker shaft-streaks are also very distinct. The 

 Fort Bridger specimen is in the worn and faded summer plumage, and 

 is consequently lighter-colored than the two just described ; but were i^t 

 in recent possession of the winter dress, to correspond with these, 

 it would be all but indistinguishable from the Chiriqui specimen, the 

 tibiae being uniform rufous, except on the front part, where broken by 

 small white bars, and that of the sides, from breast to Hanks, quite 

 continuous. 



The females present variations quite parallel with those of the 

 males. The lightest in the series are No. 2199, Mus. K. E., Long 

 Island, ]Sr. Y. ; No. 54337, Nat. Mus., Yukon R., Alaska, and a specimen 

 from Mexico, in Mr. Salvin's collection ; the three being so extremely 

 similar that the differences cannot be easily expressed. The darkest of 

 the series are: one from Guatemala (No. 2264, Mus. O. Salvin ; Jan.): 

 No. 6954, Nat. Mus., Black Hills, Wyoming (August) ; No. 32499, Nat. 

 Mus., Orizaba, Mex. ; No. 8513, Nat. Mus., Gamp Yuma, Colorado E., 

 California (Dec.) ; and one from the District of Columbia (No. 49, 

 Mus. L. Jouy) ; and these, also, are very much alike. A si^ecimen from 

 Saticoy, California (No. 63647, Nat. Mus. ; Nov. 14), exhibits, to a greater 

 extent than any other before us, an ashy shade on the sides of the breast, 

 and a grayer cast to the rufous bars of the anterior lower i^arts ; but 

 the dilierence in this respect from other specimens is not conspicuous. 



In the young plumage, the individual variation is much more remark- 

 able than in the adult ; but the variation seems to be essentially indi- 

 vidual, although most specimens from the Northwest Coast region 

 (Oregon to Sitka) are darker in their shades of color than those from 

 other portions of the continent. This, however, is a mere tendency to 

 climatic variation, since there are specimens in the series before us 

 which are indistinguishable from these Northwest Coast examples; the 

 localities thus represented being the Souris Eiver, Dakota, Ori- 

 zaba, Mexico (No. 37428), Lower California (No. 17210), and Fort 

 Tejon, Upper California (No. 12023). The darkest individuals, how- 

 ever, are No. 45828, 3 juv., Sitka, August, and No. 5845, 9 juv., Fort 

 Steilacoom, Washington Territory, August. In these, the upper parts 

 are a blackish sepia, with the terminal borders of the feathers dark 

 rusty, almost chestnut. The tibiic are pale rufous, with deeper rufous 

 spots; the markings of the breast are deep sepia, broadly sagittate, 

 those of the sides decidedly transverse, and widely connected along the 

 middle of the feathers, while those on the abdomen are acute-ovate. 



Specimens from the Atlantic States are palest, two from the District 

 of Columbia ( S juv., No. 2561, Mus. E. E., and 9 juv.. No. 631, Mus. E. 

 E.) being the lightest-colored examples in the entire scries of seventy- 

 three specimens. In these, the upper parts are grayish-sepia, with the 



