NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 
379 
the sharp ridge of linarius. The commissure is about straight ; but the depres- 
sion of the tip of the upper mandible, which gives the convexity to the cul- 
men, causes it to be a little decurved. The bill is higher than broad at the 
base, and so vaulted and arched as to resemble that of Cannabinaov even Carpo - 
dacus rather than of JEgioihus. It is mostly of a dusky horn color, but the cutting 
edges, and a great portion of the lower mandible are light bluish horn color. 
The nasal plumuli are short, scarcely covering more than the basal third of the 
bill, and are rather scant. The front, lores and a gular spot are dusky, as in 
all other species of the genus, the feathers of the former having slightly wavy 
tips. The pileum is deep crimson. The sides and back of the head and neck, 
and the upper parts generally to the rump, are blackish brown, scarcely re- 
lieved by the dull brownish yellow which margins the feathers so very nar- 
rowly as to give an almost uniform dusky aspect to those parts. The rump, 
though lighter than the rest of the upper parts, is so merely in consequence of 
the fading of the dull yellowish margins of the feathers into white, it being 
streaked with dusky almost or quite as thickly as the back itself. The wings 
and tail are deep dusky brown, very narrowly margined with whitish, most 
conspicuous on the inner secondaries, but even there much narrower than in 
any other species except fuscescens. The light borders and tips of the median 
and greater coverts are also reduced to a minimum, being scarcely broader 
than the margins of the primaries. The under parts are dull white ; the sides 
of the neck, breast and body, and the under tail coverts thickly streaked with 
well defined lines of deep dusky ; the throat, breast, sides of the head and 
body, and the rump, suffused with rosy, which deepens into carmine on the 
breast, and is palest on the rump and sides under the wings. The streaks on 
the sides of the body extend quite across the lower part of the breast ; but 
the middle of the belly and the abdomen are unspotted. The feet are brownish 
black, large and stout, but are not disproportionate to the size of the bird. 
They have much the same comparative size and relative proportions of tarsus 
and toe, as in linarius or fuscescens . The claws are all short, blunt and little 
curved, even more so than in fuscescens , and differing greatly in this respect 
from canescens , the only species of the genus which equals it in size of body, or 
in the absolute size of the feet. In the forking of the tail and the proportion 
of the primaries, it does not differ materially from other species. 
Variations by sex , age, fyc. — The adult female in summer plumage differs in 
being notably smaller, though the general proportions, and the shape of the 
bill are preserved. The crimson pileum is greatly restricted. There is only 
a barely appreciable tinge of rosy on the breast, and none at all on the rump. 
The breast is instead thickly streaked, like the sides, with well defined dusty 
lines and spots. 
Immature males, and old males in winter, differ from the adult males in 
summer, merely in having the rosy or carmine much less vivid and more re- 
stricted, the feathers of the breast being tipped with whitish. 
Very young birds of both sexes differ, as is usual in this genus, from the 
adults, in a general rufous or yellowish suffusion, more or less intense, espe- 
cially about the head and breast ; and in a general want of the distinct defi- 
nition of the dusky streaks, which have reddish borders, and fade insensibly 
into whitish. The streaks on the under parts appear to be more numerous, 
the middle of the belly only being free from them. In a specimen before us, 
the rufous suffusion is more decided than we have ever seen it even in linarius , 
its color being deeper and darker, as we should expect from the much darker 
colors of the adult birds. Immature specimens have frequently the much re- 
stricted pileum of a bright coppery rather than deep crimson tint. 
Accidental variations . — -With but a small series of specimens — only nine in 
number — we are unable to present the variations to which the species is sub- 
ject as fully as might be desired. As far, however, as we can judge from the 
specimens before us, they are inconsiderable. But even if they were very 
1861.] 
