716 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



rusty or chestnut instead of blackish. Also somewhat resembling 

 0. Thostatus, but coloration darker and penciling of lower parts denser 

 and more irregular. Differing from 0. vermiculatus in having the 

 tarsi feathered to base of the toes, in coarser vermiculation of upper 

 parts, and other characters. 



Brown phase. 



Adults {sexes alike). — Ground color of upper parts light grayish 

 brown to light mummy brown, everywhere coarsely vermiculated 

 with black or dusky and with irregular spots of black, these gome- 

 times, in places, assuming the form of streaks, the spots most numer- 

 ous on crown, where often the black predominates; outer webs of 

 exterior scapulars white passing into buff basally and tipped with 

 black or with black and brown vermiculations; outer webs of outer- 

 most middle and greater wing-coverts with a large subterminal spot 

 of white or buffy white; outer webs of alulae with large white spots, 

 these passing into cinnamon-buff or light cinnamon on inner portion 

 (next to shaft) ; secondaries, proximal primaries, and primary coverts 

 crossed by bands of cinnamon, more or less mottled or freckled, in 

 middle, with dusky, the distal primaries with the spots forming these 

 bands larger, white on outer portion, and mostly immaculate; tail 

 dusky grayish brown crossed by narrow bands of dull or brownish 

 cinnamon, both these bands and the dusky interspaces in part broken 

 by mottlings; face dull brownish white to cinnamon or light mais 

 brown, more or less distinctly barred with dusky, the "eyebrows'' 

 (superciliary region) usually somewhat lighter in color, rarely 

 approaching whitish; facial circle usually well defined only on lower 

 (subauricular or post malar) portion, mostly sooty black; ground color 

 of under parts dull white, with irregular or zigzag transverse bars 

 of dark brown suffused with lighter brown, and irregular mesial 

 streaks of black, the barring denser anteriorly; legs light to pale 

 tawny-brown or russet, thickly barred with deep to dark brown; under 

 tail-coverts white, irregularly barred with deeper and paler brown 

 (the bare often double, especially on longer coverts); under wing- 

 coverts pale cinnamon-buff, those toward edge of wing deeper 

 brownish buffy and thickly mottled with dark brown; under pri- 

 mary coverts pale brownish buff basally, with a large terminal sub- 

 cuneate area of dusky grayish brown or brownish gray; under surface 

 of distal primaries with inner webs dusky brownish, grayish brown, 

 or brownish gray, with indistinct transverse spots or short bands of 

 paler, the inner primaries and secondaries with these markings more 

 distinct and on proximal portion much paler and more buffy (pale 

 brownish buffy); bill pale dull yellowish (in dried skins) becoming 

 grayish or horn color latero-basally; toes light brownish (in dried 

 skins). 



