96 



NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIOIS'S m ALASKA. 



DESCRIPTION OF ADULT BIRD, WITH NOTES UPON VARIATIONS EXHIBITED IN A SERIES OF 

 EIGHTEEN SPECIMENS FROM SAIKT MICHAELS, KOR'JON SOUND, ALASKA. 



My examples of this bird are iiiaiuly spring specimens ; yet they show every gradation from 

 the nearly uniform dull rusty seen in the young bird to the dull ashy of the adult. In only two or 

 three instances is the rusty wanting on the back, and taking one of these birds as typical of the 

 perfect plumage I present the following description : 



Lores and crown to nearly half an inch back of eye bare and finely carunculated, and 

 encroached upon by a median extension of the feathers along vertex to a point opposite the 

 posterior half of orbit, thus forming a bare area. In life this bare area is dull livid red, sometimes 

 irregularly mottled with yellowish. Feathers of chin, throat, and cheeks, reaching bare area of 

 crown just back of eye, are dingy yellowish white. Rest of head and neck rather dull uniform 

 ashy. Back, scapulars, tertials, and wing-coverts with clear ashy bases, and tipped for about 

 quarter of their length by pale dingy brown on the back, and becoming almost a rusty brown on 

 the upper tertials. Lower tertials, and secondaries ashy at base with blackish ashy tips, and pale 

 brown on outer web of secondaries. Inner primaries ashy brown with dark tips ; outer five quills 

 blackish with paler brown shafts. Rump ashy ; tail ashy with a wash of brown, and darkening at 

 the tips. Entire under surface ashy, marked on the breast by brown edges to feathers. CTnder 

 wing-coverts and axillaries clear ashy. Iris usually a bright, dark orange yellow, varying to plain 

 orange yellow or even pale orange red. 



In No. 1948, a bird at least two years old, as shown by its plumage, there is a broad band of 

 pure white running along the length of the primary shafts, disappearing near the tip. This white 

 line is so narrowly bordered on each side with a dark line that it requires a close examination to 

 determine the fact. On the under surface of quill the white line is present, but very much reduced 

 in breadth. In some birds the forward extension of the median point of the feathers on crown reaches 

 only opposite posterior border of the orbit, and in birds of the previous year the bare crown area 

 may be sparsely feathered to the base of the bill. There is an appreciable difference in size between 

 the males and females, as exhibited in the appended measurements, but this is the only character 

 by which they can be separated. 



A young bird, a little over half grown, taken at Saint Michaels in September, presents the 

 following characters : Naked space on top and sides of head in adults is covered at this age with 

 short plumbeous gray feathers, slightly sprinkled and mottled with rusty. The rest of crown and 

 nape bright rufous or rusty, becoming intermingled with ashy feathers, and much less marked 

 along the rest of the back of the neck. Neck below still more ashy ; the latter color is nearly 

 uniform on the chin. Feathers of the back, including dorsum, scapulars, and tertials, broadly 

 tipped with a bright, rich, rusty red. Bases of these feathers clear ashy. Rump and tail ashy, 

 with scarcely a trace of rufous ; quills as in adults; Abdominal surface dull ashy, with a feather 

 here and there tipped with rusty. Bill fleshy at base, lighter at tip. 



A specimen of Grns from the Great Slave Lake has the quills white as in ordinary mexicana 

 and the following measurements : 



Wing, 19; tail, 7.50 ; tarsus, 8.16; culmen, 4.18; height at base, .63. 



A-dult G. mexicana shows the following proportions : 



A specimen of canadensis from Kenai, Alaska, May 4, 1869, measures — wing, 19.80 ; tail, 8.10: 

 tarsus, 8.20; culmen, 3.80; height of bill at base, .70. This bird has the bare crown area about 

 equal to that of the average mexicana and the white wing-shafts are dull colored. 



