coverts, bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish, externally glossed with dull blue ; tail- 

 feathers also blackish with a dull blue gloss ; lores blackish ; sides of face, ear-coverts, cheeks, and 

 entire under surface of body dark purplish blue like the back, with a second patch of silky white 

 feathers on the sides of the flanks ; axillaries and under wing-coverts like the breast ; quills ashy 

 black below, rather lighter along the inner web : " bill deep brownish black ; feet purplish black ; iris 

 dark brown" (Audubon). Total length 7"5 inches, culmen - 55, wing 5"85, tail 3'05, tarsus 055. 



Adult female. Differs from the male in not being blue below. General colour above dark purplish blue, 

 not so brilliant as in the male ; the head like the back, the forehead browner, the feathers slightly 

 mottled with purplish-blue centres ; lesser and median wing-coverts like the back ; greater 

 coverts, bastard-wing, primary-coverts, quills, and tail-feathers black, glossed externally with dull 

 blue ; lores black ; ear-coverts dull blue ; cheeks, throat, and breast light ashy brown, extending 

 on to the sides of the neck ; feathers of the throat with narrow dusky shaft-lines, those of the 

 fore neck blacker, obscured with hoary whitish tips ; sides of upper breast with a few feathers 

 tipped with purplish blue like the back ; centre of breast and abdomen whitish, the feathers with 

 more or less distinct dusky shaft-lines ; in the centre of the breast a longitudinal spot of dusky 

 blackish ; sides of body and flanks dark smoky brown, with ashy-whitish margins to the feathers ; 

 thighs brown externally, white internally ; under tail-coverts white, with dusky centres to the 

 feathers, becoming darker before the tips ; axillaries and under wing-coverts dark sooty brown 

 or blackish, the coverts near the edge of the wing glossed with steel-blue and distinctly edged 

 with white ; quills dusky below, more ashy along the inner web. Total length 7'5 inches, culmen 

 - 55, wing 5'65, tail 2'85, tarsus - 55. 



Young. Resembles the old female, but is browner above, with scarcely any blue gloss, excepting on the 

 head ; the secondaries narrowly fringed with white near the ends ; sides of neck brown, with an 

 ill-defined crescent of ashy white ; throat, breast, and under surface of body brown, with hoary 

 margins to all the feathers ; lower breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts pure white, with a few 

 brown shaft-streaks on the former ; under wing-coverts dark brown, those near the edge of the 

 wing with white edges. 



A young bird from Sing Sing shows scarcely any dusky shaft-streaks on the under tail- 

 coverts. Such a specimen is very difficult to distinguish from P. chalybea, as the dusky centres 

 to the under tail-coverts of the immature of P. purpurea are the chief character by which the 

 latter may be distinguished from P. chalybea. 



The male in the second year still greatly resembles the adult female, but is whiter below, with very 

 distinct shaft-streaks of dark brown on the breast and abdomen ; a few bright blue feathers are 

 observable on the throat and chest ; mesial under tail-coverts streaked with brown, the lateral 

 ones externally brown. 



A male in the second year from Washington, D.C., in the Henshaw collection has the dusky 

 centres to the under tail-coverts well marked, but has the grey on the forehead and on the sides 

 of the neck, reminding one of P. hesperia, as we have remarked in our account of the latter 

 species. 



With regard to P. cryptoleuca, Mr. Ridgway says (Manual, p. 459) that it is smaller than P. pur- 

 purea, with narrower tail-feathers and, relatively, a more deeply forked tail. The adult male 

 is said by him to have the feathers of the ventral region marked, beneath the surface, with a 

 broad spot, or bar, of white. The adult female and immature male have the whole under portion, 

 and the sides of the head and neck, chest, sides, and flanks, uniform sooty greyish brown, in 



