While admitting the strong probability that the different brown Pipilos with rufous throat bordered by black spots, P. fuscus, crissalis, mesoleucus, albigula, and probably even albicollis, are geographical modifications of the same original type, the large collection before us vindicates the action of those who have referred the California species to that described by Swainson as fuscus, and who have distinguished the P. mesoleucus from both. The original description of fuscus agrees almost exactly with crissalis, both actually scarcely separable; while the mesoleucus, intermediate in geographical position, is decidedly different from either. The relationships of these different forms will be found expressed in the general diagnosis already given.
Two descriptions given by Swainson, copied below, of the P. fuscus, differ somewhat from each other, and may not have been taken from the same specimen. The identification of either with P. mesoleucus would be a difficult matter; while the first one expresses the peculiar characters of crissalis more nearly than any other. The statement of “white beneath,” without any qualification, applies better to mesoleucus than to others, but the “pale rufous tinge” observable in crissalis and fuscus is very different from the abruptly defined chestnut cap of mesoleucus.
Pipilo fuscus, Swainson, Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 434. “Gray, beneath paler; throat obscure fulvous, with brown spots; vent ferruginous. Length, 8.00; bill, .70; wings, 3.50; tail, 4.00; tarsi, .90; hind toe and claw, .70.” Hab. Table land; Temiscaltepec.
Pipilo fuscus, Swainson, Anim. in Men. 1838, 347. “Grayish-brown above; beneath white; chin and throat fulvous, with dusky spots; under tail-coverts fulvous; tail blackish-brown, unspotted. Bill and legs pale, the latter smaller, and the claws more curved than in any other known species; crown with a pale rufous tinge. Length, 7.50; wings, 3.50; tail, 4.00; tarsus, .90; middle toe and claw the same; hinder toe, .65. Rather smaller than maculata.”
[25] Pipilo albicollis, Sclater. Above uniform olivaceous-brown; the cap not differently colored. Lores, chin, and throat white, the two last bordered and defined by dusky spots; jugulum and breast white, the former clouded with olivaceous, and with a dusky blotch in middle; middle of throat crossed by an olivaceous band which curves round on each side under the ear-coverts; sides grayish. Flanks behind, anal region, and crissum, rufous. Middle wing-coverts with a whitish bar across their tips. Fourth and fifth quills longest; first shorter than ninth and secondaries. Length, 7.00; wing, 3.30; tail, 3.70. Bill and legs light. Hab. Central Mexico.
This “species” may fairly be considered as one extreme of the series of which P. crissalis is the other; and differs from the rest merely in a greater amount of white, and the absence of rufous tinge on top of head. The fulvous of throat is concentrated in a band across its middle portion, leaving chin and lower throat white; this, however, is foreshadowed in the paler chin of mesoleucus, and the whitish lower throat of albigula. The uniformity of coloring above is nearly equalled by that of P. crissalis. The whitish band across the middle wing-coverts is the most positive character.
[26] The name in manuscript on the label of a specimen in the Schlüter collection, from Astrachan.
[27] Otocorys peregrina, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1855, 110, pl. cii. Eremophila per. Scl. Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 127.
[28] A specimen from Cleveland, Ohio (7,429 ♀, April 1, Dr. Kirtland), and one from Washington, D. C. (28,246 ♂, Feb.), have nearly as distinct streaks above, but the white of lower parts is without any tinge of yellow.
[29] It is an interesting fact in regard to the species of Icteridæ, that, as a general rule, female birds of West Indian representatives of the Agelainæ and Quiscalinæ are usually, or perhaps universally, uniformly black, where the continental are brown, either concolored or streaked. We know of no exception to the first part of this statement as to Agelaius, Nesopsar, Scolecophagus, and Quiscalus. The smaller North American species of Quiscalus have the females duller, but not otherwise very different from the males, except in size. The females of the large Quiscalus, all continental, are much smaller than the males, and totally different. In Icterus all the species in which the female is very different in color from the male are Northern Mexican or continental North American (pustulatus, spurius, baltimore, bullocki, cucullatus, etc.). Most West Indian Icterus also exhibit no difference in the sexes, dominicensis, hypomelas, xanthomus, bonanæ, etc.; in one alone (leucopteryx) is the difference appreciable. The South American species have the females pretty generally similar to the males, but smaller, as is the case in the entire family.