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Show 164 White at the base of the tail more extended and broken, next the dusky portion, with a coufused mottling or spotting of grayish and dusky. There is considerable variation in the plumage of this bird at all ages; but the variations arc chiefly in details of coloration, the general style characteristic of the stage being preserved in all cases. Iu the adolt plumage, the chief variation is in the proportionate amount of rufous on the rump, some specimens having the rump as uniformly rufous as the tibire or lesser wing- coverts, while in others there is only a strong tinge or spotting of this color; the usual condition is to have the two colors mixed in about equal amount. The only conspicuous variation noticeable in the series under examination is in the marking of the tail- feathers, a single specimen, No. 9134, having the white of the I tip extending ou some feathers along the edge and thus connected with the basal white. This condition is so entirely exceptional, however, that we are led to believe that it is purely individual, and outside the normal variations which the species ordinarily presents. In the perfect adult plumage of this form, there are no white or ochraceous streaks on the throat or cheeks, nor any white other than that described above, except a faint white sprinkling, seen iu some individuals, ou the inner webs of the primaries. We still separate the northern birds of this species from the southern ones, notwithstanding Mr. Sharpe and other prominent authorities unite them, for the reason that we have yet to see a single South American specimen in which the dusky and rufous of the plumage assumes that uniformity characteristic of the adult specimens from Mexico and adjoining provinces. The Chilian specimen described above is the blackest example we have seen of the former, while Tem mi nek's plate, cited above ( PI. Col. 313), represents about the average style. The adult plumage of the South American bird seems, therefore, to correspond with the immature stage of the northern form, or that stage in which the tail is uniform black on the upper surface, with the characteristic basal and termiual white bands, the black, especially that of the lower surface, much broken by whitish edgings and spottings, and the tibi » merely barred with ferruginous. It is barely possible that we have not seen the most perfect plumage which the adult of the South American bird attains, but Mr. J. H. Guruey, than whom there is not a more competent authority, in commenting on our statement to this effect in History of North Ameri can Birds ( vol. iii, p. 249), says that so far as he has had an opportunity of examining specimens, our observation is correct. ( Cf. Ibis, April, 1875, p. 235.) List of specimens in Vnited States Xational Museum. a. UNICIXCTL'S. Catalogue 2Co. 13907 131) 08 16572 32971 32972 3RC67 48P13 48814 4HM5 49507 54111 54935 Sex and age. 9 ail. d" ad. - juv. 9 -- o juv. - juv. 9 ? juv. V jav. cMuv. - ad. Locality. Date. Chili... . . . . d o . . . Bogota. Chili. .. do ; ! Amazonia ' Chili ( Santiago) Jnne, 1864 '- do do '.... do Jnly, 1* 64 I Couchitaa. Buenos Ayrea May, 1867 I Guayaquil, Ecuador ' j do Dunor. Lieutenant Gil- Do. W. Evans. Yemsaus. Do. N. H. i l n s . Tv! -. Nat Mua. Chik. Do. Do. W. H. Hudaoi;. J. F. Reeves. Dr. Deatruge. Other specimens examined.- In nius. Philad. Acad., 9; Am. Mus., N. Y., I ; Boston Sr< 4; total, 26. * |