BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 91 



abdomen faintly and narrowly tipped with white; flanks fuscous- 

 black to black barred with white, the black interspaces two to three 

 times as wide as the narrow white bars ; thighs like the lower abdomen 

 but washed with hair brown; under tail coverts white tipped with 

 cinnamon and subterminally marked with blackish on their inner 

 webs ; under wing coverts like the remiges but edged and tipped with 

 very pale buflfy or whitish in varying amounts ; iris bright red ; biU 

 brownish on maxilla, dull orange red on mandible, the tip dusky; 

 tarsi and toes dusky brownish red. 



JwvendL (sexes alike) . — Forehead, crown, occiput, nape, upper and 

 lower back, rump, and upper tail coverts dull black, the feathers of 

 the head very narrowly and faintly edged with brownish ; hind neck, 

 scapulars, and interscapulars dull black edged with Dresden brown; 

 wings as in adult but the upper coverts mixed with dull sepia; 

 rectrices dull fuscous-black very narrowly edged with Dresden brown ; 

 superciliary stripe from base of maxilla to upper midpoint of eye 

 whitish ; lores, cheeks, auriculars deep mouse gray mottled with whitish 

 (caused by the narrow tips of the feathers) ; chin and upper throat 

 white to grayish white, the throat mottled with dusky gray; lower 

 throat, breast, sides, flanks, and abdomen dull fuscous-black mottled 

 with white, the center of the breast and abdomen largely whitish; 

 thighs dark hair brown mottled with darker; under tail coverts 

 broadly tipped with pale cinnamon, otherwise black barred with 

 white ; in some specimens the abdomen is slightly suffused with pink- 

 ish buff; "iris pale gray brown; bill-maxilla blackish, mandible red- 

 brown; feet light reddish brown" (Brooks). 



Natal down. — "Long, thick, rather coarse, black down, glossed 

 bluish on the head and greenish on the back" (Bent) ; none seen in 

 connection with the present writing, but two young birds in post- 

 natal molt have the head down greenish, not bluish (U. S. N. M. Nos. 

 141073 and 261990). 



Adult male.—'Wmg, 94^113 (105.9) ; tail 38.5-54 (44.3) ; cuhnen 

 36.5^4.5 (41.7); tarsus 31.5-39 (35.4); middle toe without claw 

 34.5-35.5 (36.7 mm.)." 



"Twenty-six specimens from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dis- 

 trict of Colimibia, Virginia, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Utah, Montana, 

 British Columbia, Washington, California, and Arizona. 



Dickey (Condor, xxx, 1928, 322) separated the birds of western North America, 

 on the basis of larger size, under the name of pacificus. The material studied 

 In the present connection does not bear out the degree of difference Dickey 

 reported. While it is true that the maximal measurements of western birds 

 are greater than those of eastern ones, the bulk of the material of both lies 

 within the limits of overlapping measurements, so that only a comparatively 

 smaU percent of the specimens could actually be separated by their size char- 



