Young (8,841, Loup Fork of Platte, August 5; F. V. Hayden). Above light grayish-brown;
beneath yellow on anterior half as in adult, but yellow less pure; rest of under parts (except abdomen) ochraceous; markings on head obsolete, the eyelids only being distinctly white.
Hab. Western and Middle Provinces of United States, east to Missouri River and Texas; Cape St. Lucas and Western Mexico.
The most tangible difference between this bird and typical virens consists in the longer tail. In addition, the upper plumage is grayish, with hardly any olive tinge, and the white maxillary stripe extends farther back; the bill is not so deep as that of the Eastern bird. All these differences, however, are in strict accordance with various laws; the more grayish cast of plumage is what we should expect in birds from the Middle Province, while the restriction of the yellow from the maxillæ we see also in Western specimens of Helminthophaga ruficapilla; the longer tail, also, is a well-known characteristic of Western birds, as distinguished from Eastern of the same species.
Upon the whole, therefore, taking into consideration the absolute identity of their habits and notes, we can only consider the I. longicauda and I. virens as restricted, as being merely geographical races of one species.
This variety, as well as the Eastern, has in autumn and winter a slightly different plumage. A pair (53,348 ♂, and 53,347 ♀, West Humboldt Mountains, Nevada) obtained September 4 differ in the following respects from spring adults: the upper plumage is decidedly brown, with even a russet tinge,—not gray, with a greenish wash; the lores are less purely black, and the sides and crissum are deep cream-color, instead of pure white; the female has a shade of olive across the jugulum; both male and female have the lower mandible almost wholly white, and the commissure broadly edged with the same.
No. 38,402 ♂, Laramie Peak, June, has the throat and jugulum strongly stained with deep cadmium-orange.
Habits. The Western or Long-tailed Chat has an exclusively Western distribution, and has been found from Mexico and Cape St. Lucas to Oregon, on the Pacific coast, and as far to the east as the Upper Missouri.
According to Dr. Cooper, these birds appear in San Diego and at Fort Mojave in the latter part of April. They are said to inhabit chiefly the warmer valleys near streams and marshes, rarely on the coast. At Fort Mojave, Dr. Cooper found a nest of this bird May 19, built in a dense thicket of algarobia. It contained three eggs, and one of the Molothrus. The nest was built of slender green twigs and leaves, lined with grass and hair. The eggs were white, sprinkled with cinnamon, somewhat in the form of a ring near the larger end, and measured .75 by .64 of an inch.
These nests were usually very closely concealed, but one that he found at Santa Cruz, near the coast, was in a very open situation, only two feet above the ground. When the nest is approached, the old birds are very bold, keeping up a constant scolding, and almost flying in the face of an intruder. At