196 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 
and the markings are all definite and distinct while immature birds of th© 
present species are of a nearly uniform ashy above, the suffusion of the breast 
very light, and the streaks so indistinct as to be scarcely appreciable. In this 
respect it resembles A. Bonapartei , with the different stages of which there is a 
perfect parallelism. In some stages of plumage it approaches the A. Cooperi , 
the resemblance being further enhanced by the slight emargination of the tail. 
The greatly superior size of the latter, however, independently of its subgeneric 
characters, at once distinguishes it. Some specimens show a tendency towards 
the general dusky state of plumage also exhibited by both minutilla and macu- 
lata , when the upper parts are very dark and nearly uniform, being scarcely 
relieved by lighter margins of the feathers. 
The following, detailed description which will serve to definitely characterize 
this species in the plumage of the adult during the breeding season, and of the 
young bird of the first fall, is taken from a very perfect male shot May 19th, at 
Fort Resolution, and from a young male obtained in Nebraska during the latter 
part of July. 
The bill is of moderate length, and very slender, expanded but slightly at tip, 
and the point very acute ; the grooves are long, extending quite to the expansion 
of the tip, that of the lower mandible being narrow but distinct. The bill is 
entirely black. The feathers encroach on the lower mandible much beyond 
those on the upper, about half as far as those between the rami. Their upper 
outline is about parallel with the culmen. There is much white about the 
head ; the extreme forehead and the lower eyelid are white, while a broad ill- 
defined band of the same passes over the eye. A narrow and well defined dusky 
stripe passes from the eye to the nostril. The crown is streaked with dusky 
brown and dull ochreous, and is darker along a broad medium stripe than at 
the sides. The sides and back of the neck are much like the crown, but rather 
lighter, the transition being gradual. The upper parts generally are of a dark 
brownish black, every feather being edged with light reddish yellow ; on the 
scapulars each feather is broadly bordered with bright buff, still more widely 
at the end with a dull shade of the same, the extreme tip being white. On 
most of the feathers the edging makes a deep, more or less irregular indenta- 
tion, leaving the black only as a line along each side of the shaft. The long 
tertials, the secondaries, and greater wing coverts are dusky, fading into dull 
white on the edges. The lesser coverts are very dark, with scarcely 
lighter tips. The primaries are deep dusky, almost black, the shaft of the first 
white, of the others mostly brownish. The inner primaries are very narrowly 
edged on the outer vane with white. The tail coverts are black, the outer 
series with sagittate spots of white. The central tail feathers which are 
rounded and project but little beyond the rest, are brownish black, narrowly 
edged with white ; the lateral light ashy, fading into white at the edges. The 
chin and throat are white, and immaculate or nearly so. The jugulum, breast, 
and sides to some distance have a very decided light brownish, or ochreous suf- 
fusion, and the makings are rather sparse, rounded, and indistinct, in the mid- 
dle of the breast nearly obsolete. They are largest and most conspicuous just 
before the bend of the wing, where they gradually pass into the stripes of the 
sides of the neck. The rest of the under parts including the axillars and under 
wing coverts are white, immaculate. The tibial feathers are ashy; the legs 
and feet black. 
The young has the form and proportions much as in the adult. The white 
about the head is much restricted, and the line over the eye so illy defined as 
to be scarcely appreciable as such. The upper parts generally are of a dull 
nearly uniform brownish ash, each feather with a shaft line of dusky, and 
with a lighter tip. There are traces of the brownish black of the adult at in- 
tervals, but more particularly on the scapulars, where the edgings are yellowish 
white. The rump and upper tail coverts are nearly as dark as on the adult. 
The suffusion of the jugulum and breast is a very light shade of reddish brown j 
[July, 
