BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 591 



no. 4, 1876, 20 (descr. female) .— Palvin, Ibis, 1874, 309 (crit.) .— Salvin 

 and GoDMAX, Biol. Centr.-Aui., Aves, i, 1886, 362, pi. 25. — Sn.\EPE, Cat. 

 Birds Brit. Mus., xii, 1888, 621. 

 P.lmserina] rosita: Ridgway, Man. N. Am. Birds, 1887, 449. 



CYANOSPIZA VERSICOLOR (Bonaparte). 

 VARIED BUNTING. 



Adult male in simimer. — Lores and narrow frontlet black; forehead, 

 fore part of crown, supra-auricular region, lower hindneck, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts light purplish blue or bluish purple (mauve to cam- 

 panula or flax-flower blue), the malar and auricular regions and lesser 

 wing-coverts similar but darker; lower eyelid, spot on posterior por- 

 tion of upper ej'Clid, hind part of crown, occiput, and upper hindneck 

 vermilion red; back dusky purplish red, the scapulars more bluish or 

 purplish; chin blackish; throat and chest maroon purplish, usualty 

 more red on throat, where the red sometimes forms a distinct patch; 

 other under parts dusky purple (Indian pvirple oi- dark heliotrope pur- 

 ple), the flanks usually more grayish; wings duskj" with dull grajnsh 

 blue and pui'plish edgings; tail blackish, edged with dull blue; max- 

 illa black or blackish brown; mandible light brownish or horn color 

 (pale grayish blue in life?); legs and feet black or brownish black. 



Adult male in wimter. — Similar to the summei' male, but the bright 

 colors more or less obscured l)y grajdsh brown tips to the feathers of 

 pileum, back, and scapulars, and lighter, more buffy, tips to those of 

 the under parts, the larger wing-coverts and tertials also more or less 

 broadly tipped or edged with grayish brown. 



Adult female in sumiuer. — Above grayish brown (hair brown) more 

 or less strongly tinged with olive (occasionally tinged with dull light 

 grajdsh blue), passing into light glaucous or bluish gray on rump and 

 upper tail-coverts; tail bluish dusky, the rectrices edged with glau- 

 cous-bluish; middle and greater wing-coverts indistinctly tipped with 

 paler grayish brown, and primaries and adjoining secondaries edged 

 with pale glaucous-graj' or bluish; under pai'ts dull whitish on throat, 

 abdomen, and tips of under tail-coverts : elsewhere pale grayish brown, 

 deepest on chest. 



Adtdt female in winter and immature male in first vMnter. — Similar 

 to Slimmer female, but deeper colored and browner, both above and 

 below, with only the center of lower abdomen distinctlj^ whitish. 



Young female in first whiter. — Above umber brown, paler on rump 

 and upper tail-coverts; edges of primaries and rectrices brownish gra}% 

 the latter somewhat inclining to dull glaucous; under pa]-ts ^cod- 

 brown, paler on center of abdomen, the under tail-coverts pale brown- 

 ish gray, broadlj^ margined and tipped with pale dull bufl:y. 



Yoimg in first plumage. — Above grayish brown or drab (less oliva- 

 ceous than in summer female), the edges of retrices and primaries dull 



