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ALECTORIDES. 
Synopsis of the North American Species. 
Com. Char. Above, olive or ashy, with more or less distinct broad longitudinal stripes of 
darker ; beneath, concolored anteriorly, variegated with bars on the flanks and crissum. Breast 
more or less reddish ; flanks and crissum with brown and white transverse bars ; a supraloral light 
stripe. Wing-coverts usually more rufescent than back. 
A. Size large (wing more than 5 inches). 
a. Axillars and flanks dusky, with wide white liars (bars about 15 of an inch wide on flanks). 
1. R. elegans. Back and scapulars ochraceous-olive or yellowish drab, sharply and conspicu- 
ously striped with black ; breast deep cinnamon. Wing, 5.90-6.80 ; culmen, 2.10-2.50 ; 
least depth of bill, .22-.3S ; tarsus, 1.90-2.40 ; middle toe, 1.70-2.10. Hab. Fresh- water 
marshes of Eastern North America. 
R. elegans. 
b. Axillars and lining of wing dark brown, narrowly barred with white ; flanks dark brown 
distinctly barred with both white and blackish, the bars of the former about .05-07 of an 
inch wide. 
2. R. Beldingi. Above, deep olive-brown, distinctly but not sharply striped with brownish 
black ; breast, etc., rich cinnamon. Wing, 5.70 ; tail, 2.50 ; culmen, 2.15 ; least depth 
of bill, .30 ; tarsus, 1.92 ; middle toe, 1.80. Hah. Gulf of California (Espiritu Santo 
Island). 
c. Axillars and flanks brownish gray, with narrow white bars (bars about .10 of an inch wide 
on flanks). 
3. R. obsoletus. Back and scapulars grayish olive, indistinctly striped with dusky ; breast 
deep cinnamon. Wing, 6.40-6.60; culmen, 2.25-2.50; least depth of bill, .32-.35; 
tarsus, 2.10-2.25 ; middle toe, 2.00-2.15. Hab. Salt-water marshes of California. 
4. R. longirostris. Back and scapulars brownish gray or ashy, obsoletely striped with 
brown (in Gulf coast specimens distinctly striped with dusky) ; breast pale buff (in Gulf 
coast specimens dull cinnamon). Wing, 5.20-6.00; culmen, 2.05-2.50; least depth of 
bill, .22-.3S ; tarsus, 1.85-2.10; middle toe, 1.75-2.00. Hab. Salt-water marshes of 
Eastern United States, West Indies, and Northeastern South America. 
B. Size small (wing less than 4.50 inches). 
5. R. virginianus. Similar to R. elegans, but rather more deeply colored. Hab. North and 
Middle America. 
