208 



BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



dull whitish), and, together with the chest, unstreaked; maxilla brown- 

 ish black or dusky brown; mandible brownish, dusky at tip; iris brown; 

 length (skins), 154.9-180.3 (166.9); wing, 93.5-104.6 (101.1); tail, 

 61.7-70.4 (66.8); culmen, from base, 15.2-17 (16); depth of bill at base, 

 10.2-11.2 (10.9); tarsus, 24.1-26.4 (25.4); middle toe, 15.7-18.8 (17).' 



Toung male. — Above varying from dark hair brown to sooty gray- 

 ish brown, the feathers with narrow pale grayish brown and whitish 

 margins (these usually indistinct and often obsolete on pileum and 

 hindneck), the wing-coverts and tertials more broadly and conspicu- 

 ously margined with dull buffy whitish; under parts conspicuously 

 streaked with sooty grayish brown or hair brown and dull bujffy or 

 whitish, the latter on margins or lateral edges of feathers, the darker 

 color prevailing anteriorly; maxilla dark brownish, mandible paler; 

 legs and feet brownish. 



Young female. — Similar to the young male but paler, especially the 

 under parts, which are principally dull light buffy streaked with gray- 

 ish brown. 



Temperate North America in general, except portions of Pacific coast; 

 north to about 49° in more eastern portions, to 55° 30' (Little Slave 

 Lake, etc.) in the interior; west to British Columbia (both sides of Cas- 

 cade range), Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and southeastern Califor- 

 nia;' south in winter to central and southeastern Mexico (Jalapa and 

 Orizaba, Vera Cruz; Huexotitla, Puebla; Hacienda San Juan Capis- 

 trano, Zacatecas; Cozumel Island, Yucatan, etc.); breeding south to 

 Georgia (Wayne and Mcintosh counties), Louisiana (Petite Anse 

 Island), and Texas (Harris and Bexar counties). 



Oriolus aler BoddaeSt, Tabl. PI. Enl., 1783, 37 (based on Troupiaie, de la Caroline, 

 Daubenton, PI. Enl., pi. 606, fig. 1). 



[Molothms'] aler Gray, Hand-list,- ii, 1870, 36, no. 6507. 



Molothrus aler Codes, Check List, 1873, 43, footnote; 2d ed., 1882, no. 313; Bull. 

 TJ. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr., iii, 1877, 667 (n. Texas) .—Baikd, Orn. 

 Simpson's Exp., 1876, 379 (Utah).— Ridgway, Field and Forest, 1877,' 208 

 (Colorado) ; Nom. N. Am. Birds, 1881, no. 258; Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., ix, 1886, 

 151 (Huexotitla, Puebla; crit.); Orn. Illinois, i, 1889, 310. — Brewster, Bull. 

 Nutt. Orn. Club, iii, 1878, 123 (descr. young).— Merrill, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 



'Fifteen specimens. 



Eastern specimens and a smaller western series average as follows: 



