BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 



Grayish brovm phase with white tail-bands. 



799 



Adults {sexes alike)). — General color of upper parts deep hair brown 

 or broccoli brown to nearly snuff brown, the pileum and hindneck 

 usually concolor with back, etc., but sometimes slightly more grayish 

 brown; pileum and hindneck narrowly streaked with dull white to 

 pale brownish buff, the streaks usually liuear but sometimes inclining 

 to narrowly guttate form; across lower hindneck a broken collar of 

 white or pale buffy, some of the feathers tipped with black, especially 

 laterally, where the black sometimes forms a more or less distinct trans- 

 verse patch; scapxilars with large roundish spots of white, mostly on 

 outer webs, the back and rump (sometimes upper tail-coverts also) 

 usually with much smaller, mostly concealed, whitish spots; lai^e 

 wing-coverts more or less spotted with white; remiges dark grayish 

 brown, crossed by narrow bands of lighter brown, these often becom- 

 ing white on edges of secondaries and on distal portion of longer pri- 

 maries ; tail deep brown or grayish brown to blackish brown, crossed 

 by about six narrow interrupted bands of white, or transverse white 

 spots (these not touching shaft on either web) usually narrowly tipped 

 or terminally margined with whitish, the brown interspaces more or 



It is not possible to draw a sharp line between plumages I and II or between II 

 and III, many specimens being intermediate, and these have had to be arbitrarily 

 j)laced. In the former instance all specimens having white predominating in the 

 tail-bands have been referred to group I, while in the latter all those showing little 

 contrast in color between the back and the tail have been referred to group III. 

 Quite evidently the relative proportion of the rufescent to the other plumage must 

 vaxy according to the particular series obtained in any one country, though it seems 

 significant that all of the considerable number of Texas examples represent one style 

 of plumage only. 



