NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 
175 
gins of all and a central field along the shaft white. Under parts white, the 
throat and jugulum streaked, and the other parts thickly and uniformly waved 
with transverse dusky bars, bordered with light reddish. Bill, legs and feet, 
dark greenish black. Young. Upper parts a uniform light greyish ash, the 
blackish feathers appearing at intervals ; these and the dusky scapulars and 
wing coverts bordered with white. Upper tail coverts white, scarcely marked 
with dusky. Primaries as in the adult. Under parts white, the jugulum with 
an ashy suffusion, and obsoletely streaked. Slight traces of the reddish 
auriculars. Bill dusky black, legs and feet light greenish yellow. 
Length 9*25, extent 16’75, wing 5*1, tail 2*3. Tarsus 1*6, middle toe 1, 
tibia exposed 1 inch. 
Habitat . — North America, east of the Rocky Mountains. 
The preceding diagnosis would characterize the species sufficiently well for 
ordinary purposes ; but in view of the uncertainty whether there are not two 
or more species to be enumerated as inhabitants of North America, a some- 
what more extended description may not be considered unnecessary. The 
following is taken from a very perfect male from Great Slave Lake in spring 
plumage ; and the description of the supposed young is from a specimen from 
the Red Fork of the Arkansas. 
The feathers extend on the lower mandible nearly in the form of a right 
angle, their upper outline being about parallel with the culmen, to a distance 
beyond those on the upper equal to half the distance of those between the 
rami. The crown of the head is blackish, streaked with white and with red- 
dish. An ill-defined light line over the eye commences about half way be- 
tween the eye and bill, and extends to the occiput, widening posteriorly. 
There is a dusky line between the eye and bill. The auriculars are light 
chestnut red, which color extends as a line beneath and before 'the eye to the 
white stripe above ; interrupted by this, it commences above the stripe and 
passes over the side of the occiput to the nape, where it is confluent with the 
one on the opposite side. The hind neck is simply streaked with dusky and 
whitish. The middle of the back is black, each feather edged and tipped with 
light yellowish, which encroaches upon the central black in two or three irregu- 
lar indentations. On the scapulars the edgings are tinged with reddish, and 
the indentations are more numerous and regular. The long tertials are black- 
ish, evenly edged with chestnut passing into whitish at the tip. All the 
feathers of the back have a greenish gloss. The secondaries and greater 
coverts are light ashy edged with white, the lesser coverts darker with light 
borders. The primaries are dusky, their tips black, the shaft of the first 
brown passing into white, of the others black passing into brown ; the tips of 
all black. The centre of the rump is dusky, the sides nearly white ; the upper 
tail coverts white with numerous sagittate or wavy bars of deep dusky. The 
tail is very light ash, the central feathers scarcely darker, all with the margins 
and a central shaft field white, most of the inner vane of the two outer being 
white. The under parts are white ; the throat very sparsely marked with 
minute dusky streaks, which on the jugulum are much larger and more nu- 
merous ; these streaks on the breast change to transverse wavy bars of dusky 
bordered with reddish, which uniformly cover the whole under parts. These 
lines are thickest and most distinct on the breast, growing more obsolete in 
the middle of the belly, and are largest on the sides under the wings, where 
the reddish margins fill up the space between the bars on the same feather. 
There is little reddish on the under tail coverts, where the bars become more 
or less sagittate. 
The young is very different from the adult in color, but presents much the 
same form and size. The upper parts are of a uniform light ashy, the blackish 
of the adult appearing in irregular patches. These dark feathers, as well as 
the scapulars, wing coverts and tertials are edged with white, the latter 
1861.] 
