Subgenus LANIVIREO, Baird.
Char. Body stout, head broad. Bill short and stout, broad at the base, the culmen curved from the base, the commissure considerably arched. Bill blue-black. Feet stout. Type, V. flavifrons. For figure, see [page 379].
Species and Varieties.
Common Characters. A broad stripe from bill to and around, but not beyond, the eye. Two broad white bands across the wings. Bill plumbeous-blue, black toward culmen. Iris brown in all species?
1. L. solitarius. Spurious primary exposed. Throat and orbital ring white.
a. Spurious primary well developed,—.60 or more long, .10 broad.
Nape and side of neck plumbeous; upper tail-coverts olive-green. Crissum tinged with yellow, but none on side of throat, nor across breast. Wing, 3.05; tail, 2.40; bill, from nostril, .27; tarsus, .66. Hab. Eastern Province of United States, straggling westward to the Pacific Coast, especially in its migration southward into Mexico, where it penetrates in winter as far as Guatemala … var. solitarius.
Above continuous olive-brown; below ochraceous-white, with a buffy tinge across breast, and deeply olivaceous along sides. Crissum tinged with yellow. Wing, 2.80; tail, 2.15; bill, 30; tarsus, 66. Hab. Pacific Province of United States, straggling in autumn eastward into the Middle Province … var. cassini.
Above continuous ashy-plumbeous. Beneath pure white, ashy along sides, and very slightly so across breast. Wing, 3.25; tail, 2.50; bill, .30; tarsus, .66. Hab. Middle Province of United States, south, in winter, through Western Mexico to Colima … var. plumbeus.
b. Spurious primary very minute,—about .30 long by .04 wide.