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Show 113 tail coverts and the tail itself have a narrow terminal margin of white. Tbe- lower plumage of these two is strikingly different, however, although in both the rufous greatly predominates over the white in amount. In tbe Chiriqui specimen, the rufous is nearly uniform across the breast, along the sides, aud on the tibia?, 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 marginal suffusion of plumbeous, aud the darker shaft- streaks are so nearly obsolete as to be seen only upon very close inspection. In the Utah specimen, 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 tibte 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. R. R., Long Island, N. Y.; No. 54337, Nat. Mus., Yukon R, Alaska, and a specimen from Mexico, in Mr. S. iivin'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.); I >* o. 6954, Nat. Mus., Black Hills, Wyoming ( August); No. 32499, Nat. Mus., Orizaba, Mex.; No. 8513, Nat. Mus., Camp Yuma, Colorado R, California ( Dec); and one from the District of Columbia ( No. 49, Mns. 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 variatiou is much more remarkable than in the adult; but the variation seems to be essentially individual, although most specimens from the Northwest Coast regiou 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 River, Dakota, - Ori-wba, Mexico ( No. 37428), Lower California ( No. 17210), and Fort • frjon, Upper California ( No. 12023). The darkest individuals, howler, are No. 45828, 3 juv., Sitka, August, and No. 5845, 9 juv., Fort Heilacoom, Washington Territory, August. In these, the upper parts are a blackish sepia, with the terminal borders of the feathers dark ^ sty, almost chestnut. The tibiae are pale rufous, with deeper rufous spots; the markings of the breast are deep sepia, broadly sagittate, toose 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 « J Columbia ( * juv., No. 2561, Mus. B. R., and 9 juv., No. 631, Mus. R. M being the lightest- colored examples in the entire series of seventy-three specimens. In these, the upper parts are grayish- sepia, with the |
