BIRDS—LIOTRICHIDAE—HARPORHYNCHUS RUFUS. 
353 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
Sex. 
Locality. 
Whence obtained. 
Orig. 
No. 
Collected by— 
Length. 
Stretch 
of wings. 
Wing. 
Remarks. 
4016 
8139 
Brownsville, Tex.. 
Lt. Couch_ 
1 
10. 25 
12. 00 
4. 00 
Eyes br’nish yellow. 
Lower Rio Grande. 
Maj or Emory... - 
A. Schott_ 
Xalapa, Mexico.... 
G. N. Lawrence.. 
HARPORHYNCHUS RUFUS, Cab. 
Brown Thrush. 
Turdus rufus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 293.— Vieillot, Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 4; pi. lix. —Wilson, Am. 
Orn. II, 1810, 83 ; pi. xiv.— Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 102: V, 1839, 441 ; pi. 116. 
Orpheus rufus, Swainson, F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 187.— Nuttall, Man. I, 1832, 328. —Aud. Syn. 1839,88.— Ib. 
Birds Amer. 
Mimus rufus, Gray, Genera, 1844-’49. 
Toxostoma rvfum, Cabanis, Wiegm. Archiv, 1847, i, 207. 
Methriopterus, Reiciienbach, Av. Syst. Nat. 1850, pi. lv. (Figure taken from this species according to Gray.) 
Harporhynchus rufus, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851, 82. 
Thrasher ; Sandy Mocker ; French Mocking Bird ; Yulgo. 
Sp. Ch.— Fifth quill longest; the third, fourth, and sixth, little shorter; second equal to ninth. Exposed portion of the bill 
shorter than the head. Outline of lower mandible straight. Above light cinnamon red; beneath pale rufous white with 
longitudinal streaks of dark brown, excepting on the chin, throat, middle of the belly, and under tail coverts. These spots ante¬ 
riorly, are reddish brown in their terminal portion. The inner surface of the wing and the inner edges of the primaries are 
cinnamon ; the concealed portion of the quills otherwise is dark brown. The median and greater wing coverts become blackish 
brown towards the end, followed by white, producing two conspicuous bands. The tail feathers are all rufous, the external 
ones obscurely tipped with whitish; the shafts of the same color with the vanes. Length, 11.15; wing, 4.15; tail, 5.20; 
tarsus, 1.30. 
Hab .—Eastern N. America to Missouri river, and perhaps to high central plains. 
Among the series before me are several specimens (5651, 5652, llOS) differing in some notice¬ 
able points. They are considerably larger than Pennsylvania ones, with decidedly longer tail 
and wings. The under parts are more decidedly rufous white ; the white band on the wings 
tinged with the same. The concealed portion of the quills (including the shafts) is much 
darker brown, and the shafts of the tail feathers are dark brown, conspicuously different from 
the vanes. The spots on the breast are considerably darker, showing little, if any, of the 
reddish brown. Length, 11.50; wing, 4.50; tail, 5.15; tarsus, 1.35. 
These specimens are associated with others from the same locality, precisely similar to Penn¬ 
sylvania ones. They are different from H. longirostris, though intermediate between this and 
rufus. Whether it be proper or not to erect them into a different species from the latter, as 
they certainly are from the former, is a question that I am not prepared to decide. A similar 
relation between eastern and western races is referred to under the head of the mocking bird, 
[Mimus polyglottus.) As a strongly marked variety, at least, it may be well to call it H. longi- 
cauda. 
Young birds are much as in the adult, the back sometimes streaked obsoletely with dusky. 
