point and on the inner vane; the primaries, with the exception of
the first, are slightly marked with whitish gray on their outer edge,
but are entirely destitute of white. spots. ..The tail is six inches
long, well rounded, and composed of only sixteen feathers. These
are black, with a- slight sprinkling of bright reddish on the outer
web at base, under the coverts, which disappears almost entirely
with age; all are bright dark rusty for half an inch at their tip,-
this colour itself being finely , edged and shafted with black. The«*
tarsus measures an inch and a half, its feathers, together, with the
femorals, are dingy gray, slightly waved With dusky; the toes are
dusky; the lateral scales dingy whitish, and the nails blackish.
The female is smaller than the male, being more than an inch
shorter. The general plumage is much more varied* with less of
black, but much, more o.f rusty.. There is a tinge of rufous on the
feathers of the nostrils. Those of the head, neck, and upper part
of the back, are black, with two or three bright bands of orange
rusty, and tipped with gray; there is more of the gray tint on the
neck, on the lower part of which above, the orange bands are
broader; all the remaining parts of'the body above, including the
tail-coverts,- are more confusedly banded and mottled with duller
rusty, orange, and gray, on a blackish ground, these colours-
themselves being also sprinkled with a little black. The sides
of the head, the throat, and all the neck below, are -dull rusty
orange, each feather varied with black; on the lower portion
of the breast the black bands are broad and very deep,
alternating equally with the orange rusty, and even gradually
encroaching upon the ground colour. The. breast is deep black,
each feather, as well as those of the under parts, including the
lower tail-coverts, are broadly tipped with pure white, forming
over all the ..inferior surface very large and close spots, each
feather having besides one or two rusty orange spots, much paler
and duller on the belly, and scarcely appearing when the plumage
lies’ close : the feathers of the flanks ^ire filackish, deeper at first;
and barred tyith verÿ bright orange, tfiien much mottled with dull
grayisfi. rusty, each having *a triangular white spot near the tip.
The wings and tail a#é; similar B#rfihos©t btv the i-male, the
variegation of -the^spapulars and upper çjÉverts being «only of ‘ a
much more rusty tinge, dull oraifge -in the middle on t'hft«j|haft,
all the larger^feathers having moreover a white streak along the
Shaft Sdlng'fMt^a pure white; épOl, wanting in the male. The
outer «jglge of the primaries: is otnoste' broadly whitish, *and the
tertials are dingy white at the point, being also crossed with dull
orange; me ta'il-feathers, especially the middle ones, are iÉsóre
thickly sprinkled with rusty orange, taking the appearance of
hands on the middle feMhers* their orange coloured tip being
«jBsover not so pure, and àl$o. sprinkled.'
w ith e bird represented, in the plate comes from the Rocky
Mountains : it is a male, and remarkably distinguished from the
common ones of his Species by having the tail-feathers entirely
black to the end. This differenqjl I hUve observed to be constant
in other specimens from the same Wild locality ;; whilst all the.
northern specimens, of which I hayW^amined ft great number,
are alike distinguished by the byoad rufous, tip, as in those
described, and as also, described by Linné and all other writers,
who have even considered that as an ' essential mark of the
species. The Rocky Mountain specimens- are moreover somewhat
larger, and their toes, though likewise .strongly pectinated, are
perhaps somewhat less so, and the tailf coverts a re g u re white
at tip, as represented in thé plate. But heav.en forbid that
our statements should excite the remotest suspicion that these
slight aberrations are characteristic of, different .species. I f‘We
might venture an opinion not corroborated by jfMervation. we
would say, that We should pot be astomsned if the most obvjous
discrepancy, that of the tail, Were éntirely owing to season, the
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