70 Mearns’s Description of Unusually Developed Species. 
faintest margins of ash. Professor Baird * has remarked : “ It is quite 
possible that in the full-plumaged male the entire throat may be black, as 
there is a tendency to this in some specimens.” 
2. Setophaga ruticilla, (Linne) Swainson. Redstart. — A male of 
this species, which I took here, is also remarkable for its high state of devel- 
opment (No. 1003 £, May 17, 1876, E. A. M.). It is a fully adult and 
highly plumaged bird. Its chief peculiarity consists in the extreme 
deA T elopment of the orange-red on the ventral surface, and the restriction 
of the black to the forepart of the breast, where its margin is quite 
sharply defined, being abruptly intercepted by the orange-red, which oc- 
cupies the whole under parts and sides of the body , with the exception of the 
under tail-coverts, which are white at base, the longest feathers being black- 
ish. The orange-red at the base of the rectrices and remiges is also much 
less restricted than in the normally plumaged individual. 
3. Ampelia cedrorum, (Linne) Sclater. Cedar-Bird. — I have been 
so struck by the great variation in different specimens of this species, in 
regard to the red wax-like appendages, that I have taken particular pains 
to procure a large series of specimens illustrating this difference. In this 
series I can scarcely detect any sexual difference in that respect, except 
that the particularly well-developed specimens are all males. In the 
normal plumage the waxen appendages are confined to the tips of the 
secondary remiges, but in my cabinet are several specimens which have 
them affixed to the primaries , and in several instances even to the rec- 
trices ; but they are usually small and few in number. One specimen has 
several of these attachments to the primaries, which are nearly as well 
developed as those on the secondaries. But the most remarkable speci- 
men is a handsome male (No. 545, $ ad., April 11, 1875, Highland Falls, 
N. Y., E. A. M.), having these ornaments attached, not only to each of 
the secondaries and three of the pi'imaries, but each of the rectrices is 
embellished by a well-developed red appendage. Several other specimens 
have large red tips to each of the rectrices ; and one (No. 1558 
Feb. 23, 1878, E. A. M.) has five of its primary remiges (5th to 9th) tipped 
with yellow. Professor Baird t says : “ A specimen from Guatemala 
(No. 50,455 £) is almost identical with examples from the United States, 
but differs in having a small spot of yellow at the tip of each primary ; 
also there are red appendages on the tip of a few tail-feathers, as well as 
the longest feather of the lower tail-coverts .” % 
While speaking of this species, it may be well to add, that in specimens 
taken in worn plumage, late in summer, the colors are very much bleached, 
all of the colors being very much paler ; the white band across the fore- 
* Birds of N. Am., by Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence (Yol. IX of Pacific Rail- 
road Reports), p. 244, 1858. 
+ Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Birds N. Am., Yol. I, p. 401, 1874. 
7 Italics my own. 
