BIEDS — FEIN GILLIDAE — PIPILO PUSCUS. 



517 



List of speciTnens. 



PIPILO FUSCUS, S w a i n s n . 



PijAlo fusca, Sw. Philos. Mag. I, 1827,! 434 — ?Ib. Anim. in Menag. 1838, 347.— Bonap. Conspectus, 1850, 487.— 

 CaSsin, lUust. I, IV, 1853, 124; pi. xvii. (The figure seems to be of the California species, the descrip- 

 tion more like mesoleucus.) — Newberry, Zool. Cal. & Or. Route, Rep. P.R.R. VI, iv, 1857, 89. 



Kieneria fusca, Bonap, Comptes Rendus, XL, 1855, 356. 



IHngillaerissalis, YicoBs, Zool. Blossom, 1839, 19. 



Sp. Ch. — Above dark olive brown, the crown with a very slight tinge of scarcely appreciable dark rufous. Under parts with 

 the color somewhat similar, but of a lighter shade, and washed with grayish ; middle of the belly ashy white ; the under tail 

 coverts pale rufua, shading into lighter about the vent and sides of lower belly ; chin, and upper part of throat well defined 

 pale rufous, margined all round by brown spots, a few of them scattered within the margin. Eyelids and sides of head, anterior 

 to the eye, rufous like the throat. One or two feathers on the lower part of the breast with a concealed brown blotch. Outer 

 primary not edged with white. 



Length, 9 inches; wing, 4 ; tail, 5. 



Haft. — Coast region of California. 



In this species the hill is sinuated as in P. ■abertii, differing from that of F. erythrophthcdmtis. 

 The wing is nauch rounded ; the fourth quill longest ; the first shorter than the secondaries. 

 The tail is considerably graduated ; the feathers broad ; the outer about .TO of an inch shorter 

 than the middle ones. 



This species is much darker than P. abertii, and lacks the black on chin and side of head ; 

 the chin and throat are abruptly different from the breast ; the light patch margined with 

 black spots. 



I do not feel sure that this species is really the P. fiiscus of Swainson. His description of 

 " Gray, beneath paler ; throat obscure fulvous, with brown spots ; vent ferruginous. Length, 

 8; bill, .70; wings, 3.50 ; tail, 4 ; tarsi, .90; hind toe and claw, .TO," as given in 182T^ 

 differs from that of 1838. " Grayish brown above ; beneath white ; chin and throat fulvous, 

 with dusky spots ; under tail coverts fulvous ; tail blackish brown, unspotted. Bill and legs 

 pale, the latter smaller, and the claws more curved than in any other known species ; crown 

 with a pale rufous tinge. Length, 7.50 ; wings, 3.50 ; tail, 4; tarsus, .90 ; middle toe and 

 claw the same ; hinder toe, .65." These proportions are certainly quite different from those of 

 the California species, nor are the colors of either paragraph the same. It is possible that the 

 first description is that of the present bird, and the second that of a species allied to P. meso- 

 leucus, but it is quite as likely that both of these are entirely different from Swainson's P.fuscus. 



