Wing, 3.75 to 4.30; culmen, 1.15 to 1.30; tarsus, 1.50 to 1.75; middle toe, 1.10 to 1.25. (Ten adult males!) Colors similar, but with a greater predominance of black; black heavily prevailing on back and rump, and extending to tip of feathers; also predominates on tertials and tail-feathers. Hab. Mexico and Central America … var. mexicana.[31]
Wing, 4.45; culmen, 1.62; tarsus, 1.50; middle toe, 1.20. (One specimen). Colors exactly as in last. Hab. Brazil … var. meridionalis.[32]
b. Pectoral crescent much less than half an inch wide.
Wing, 3.90 to 4.10; culmen, 1.25 to 1.35; tarsus, 1.40 to 1.55; middle toe, 1.00 to 1.20. (Three adult males.) Colors generally similar to magna, but crown decidedly streaked, though black predominates; ground-color above less reddish than in either of the preceding, with markings as in magna. Pectoral crescent about .25 in breadth. Hab. Cuba … var. hippocrepis.[33]
B. In spring birds, crown about equally streaked with black and grayish; black spots of back occupying only basal half of feathers, the terminal portion being grayish-brown, with narrow bars of black; feathers of the rump with whole exposed portion thus barred. Yellow of the throat extending over the maxillæ nearly to the angle of the mouth.
Wing, 4.40 to 5.05; culmen, 1.18 to 1.40; tarsus, 1.30 to 1.45. (Six adult males.) A grayish-brown tint prevailing above; lesser
wing-coverts concolor with the wings (instead of very decidedly more bluish); black bars of tertials and tail-feathers clean, narrow, and isolated. White of sides, flanks, and crissum nearly pure. Hab. Western United States and Western Mexico … var. neglecta.
In magna and neglecta, the feathers of the pectoral crescent are generally black to the base, their roots being grayish-white; one specimen of the former, however, from North Carolina, has the roots of the feathers yellow, forbidding the announcement of this as a distinguishing character; mexicana may have the bases of these feathers either yellow or grayish; while hippocrepis has only the tips of the feathers black, the whole concealed portion being bright yellow.
In mexicana, there is more of an approach to an orange tint in the yellow than is usually seen in magna, but specimens from Georgia have a tint not distinguishable; in both, however, as well as in hippocrepis, there is a deeper yellow than in neglecta, in which the tint is more citreous.
As regards the bars on tertials and tail, there is considerable variation. Sometimes in either of the species opposed to neglecta by this character there is a tendency to their isolation, seen in the last few toward the ends of the feathers; but never is there an approach to that regularity seen in neglecta, in which they are isolated uniformly everywhere they occur. Two specimens only (54,064 California and 10,316 Pembina) in the entire series of neglecta show a tendency to a blending of these bars on the tail.