332 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



throat metallic violet, but slightly changeable, forming a transverse 

 band about .22 of an inch wide ; chest dull white; median line of breast 

 and belly light grayish brown, the feathers margined with grayish 

 white ; sides and flanks dull bronze-green, the feathers narrowly mar- 

 gined with pale grayish or grayish white; under tail-coverts dull brown- 

 ish bronze centrally, broadly margined with white. Bill and feet black. 

 Length (skin), 3.40; wing, 1.72; tail, 1.20, the middle feathers 0.20 

 shorter; exposed culmen, 0.80. 



Adult female (No. 117263, Pinal County, Arizona, April 14, 1885; W. 

 E. D. Scott): Above dull metallic bronze-green, passing on top of head 

 into dull grayish brown, the feathers with paler margins; remiges dull 

 slate-dusky, glossed with purplish on the terminal portion. Middle 

 pair of tail-feathers entirely bronze-green ; rest bronze-green basally, 

 then purplish black, the tip of the outer three white, the latter broadest 

 on exterior feather, as is also the black ; fourth feather with a small 

 terminal spot of bronze-green. A small white spot behind eye; ear- 

 coverts dull gray; chin, malar region and upper median portion of 

 throat white; sides of throat, with chest and sides of neck, pale gray; 

 median line of breast, whole belly, anal region, and under tail-coverts, 

 white; sides and flanks white, tinged with pale grayish and light rufous. 

 Bill and feet black. Length (skin), 3.65; wing, 2.00; tail, 1.20, middle 

 feathers 0.08 shorter ; exposed culmen, 0.90. 



Young male (No. 117266, Pinal County, Arizona, July 8, 1884 ; W. E. 

 D. Scott) : Similar to streaked-throated adult females, but feathers of 

 the upper parts distinctly margined with dull buff, and remiges without 

 purplish gloss. 



Young female: Not appreciably different from the young male. 



In adult males there are the same general variations in color as are 

 noticed under T. colubris; but the color of the lower throat varies much 

 more than in that species, the variation being towards blue, some 

 specimens showing even a green hue on at least the exposed portion of 

 some of the feathers. 



Adult females vary chiefly as to the chin and throat, which are usu- 

 ally plain white or grayish white, but frequently more or less distinctly 

 streaked with dusky, even in spring and breeding specimens. Others, 

 again, even breeding birds, have a distinct rusty tinge or suffusion on 

 the flanks, as in T. colubris. Very rarely (as in No. 98440, Ked Bluff, 

 California, May 12, 1884, C. H. Townsend), the middle tail-feathers are 

 blackish at their tips for a considerable distance. 



While the range of this species within the United States is quite 

 extensive, its distribution is irregular. According to Mr. Belding 

 it is apparently rare or local in central California, although common 

 along the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, while it winters entirely 

 south of that State, not having been met with by him during the win- 

 ter even in the Cape district of Lower California. Mr. W. E. D. Scott* 



* The Auk, Oct. 1886, p. 430. 



