tail coverts and the tail itself have a narrow terminal margin of white. 
The lower plumage of these two is strikingly different, however, 
although in both the rufous greatly predominates over the white in 
amount. In the Chiriqui specimen, the rufous is nearly uniform 
across the breast, along the sides, and on the tibiae, being broken on 
these parts only by small, transverse, oblong spots of white, these 
bars becoming larger on the abdomen, where the relative proportion of 
the two colors is about equal; the rufous markings lack the usual mar¬ 
ginal suffusion of plumbeous, and the darker shaft-streaks are so nearly 
obsolete as to be seen only upon very close inspection. In the Utah spec¬ 
imen, the rufous markings of the lower parts are remarkable chiefly for 
their uniformity of size and distribution and for the distinctness of the 
marginal suffusion of plumbeous, which gives a peculiarly dark aspect to 
these markings. The darker shaft-streaks are also very distinct. The 
Fort Bridger specimen is in the worn and faded summer plumage, and 
is consequently lighter-colored than the two just described; but were it 
in recent possession of the winter dress, to correspond with these, 
it would be all but indistinguishable from the Chiriqui specimen, the 
tibise being uniform rufous, except on the front part, where broken by 
small white bars, and that of the sides, from breast to flanks, quite 
continuous. 
The females present variations quite parallel with those of the 
males. The lightest in the series are No. 2499, Mus. It. B., Long- 
Island, N. Y.; No. 51337, Nat. Mus., Yukon It., Alaska, and a specimen 
from Mexico, in Mr. Salvin’s collection; the three being so extremely 
similar that the differences cannot be easily expressed. The darkest of 
the series are: one from Guatemala (No. 2264, Mus. O. Salvin; Jan.) ; 
No. 6954, Nat. Mus., Black Hills, Wyoming (August); No. 32499, Nat. 
Mus., Orizaba, Mex.; No. 8513, Nat. Mus., Camp Yuma, Colorado It., 
California (Dec.); and one from the District of Columbia (No. 49, 
Mus. L. Jouy); and these, also, are very much alike. A specimen from 
Saticoy, California (No. 63647, Nat, Mus.; Nov. 14), exhibits, to a greater 
extent than any other before us, an ashy shade on the sides of the breast, 
and a grayer cast to the rufous bars of the anterior lower parts; but 
the difference in this respect from other specimens is not conspicuous. 
In the young plumage, the individual variation is much more remark¬ 
able than in the adult; but the variation seems to be essentially indi¬ 
vidual, although most specimens from the Northwest Coast region 
(Oregon to Sitka) are darker in their shades of color than those from 
other portions of the continent. This, however, is a mere tendency to 
climatic variation, since there are specimens in the series before us 
which are indistinguishable from these Northwest Coast examples; the 
localities thus represented being the Souris Itiver, Dakota, Ori¬ 
zaba, Mexico (No. 37428), Lower California (No. 17210), and Fort 
Tejou, Upper California (No. 12023). The darkest individuals, how¬ 
ever, are No. 45828, S juv., Sitka, August, and No. 5845, 9 juv., Fort 
Steilacoom, Washington Territory, August. In these,the upper parts 
are a blackish sepia, with the terminal borders of the feathers dark 
rusty, almost chestnut. The tibiae are pale rufous, with deeper rufous 
spots; the markings of the breast are deep sepia, broadly sagittate, 
those of the sides decidedly transverse, and widely connected along the 
middle of the feathers, while those on the abdomen are acute-ovate. 
Specimens from the Atlantic States are palest, two from the District 
of Columbia ( $ juv., No. 2561, Mus. B. B., and 9 juv., No. 631, Mus. B. 
B.) being the lightest-colored examples in the entire series of seventy- 
three specimens. In these, the upper parts are grayish-sepia, with the 
