Note 190 — {153} CHAPTER IX

1. Canis latrans.—Cinereous or gray, varied with black above, and dull fulvous, or cinnamon; hair at base dusky plumbeous, in the middle of its length dull cinnamon, and at tip gray or black, longer on the vertebral line; ears erect, rounded at tip, cinnamon behind, the hair dark plumbeous at base, inside lined with gray hair; eyelids edged with black, superior eyelashes black beneath, and at tip above; supplemental lid margined with black-brown before, and edged with black-brown behind; iris yellow; pupil black-blue; spot upon the lachrymal sac black-brown; rostrum cinnamon, tinctured with grayish on the nose; lips white, edged with black, three series of black seta; head between the ears intermixed with gray, and dull cinnamon, hairs dusky plumbeous at base; sides paler than the back, obsoletely fasciate with black above the legs; legs cinnamon on the outer side, more distinct on the posterior hair: a dilated black abbreviated line on the anterior ones near the wrist; tail bushy, fusiform, straight, varied with gray and cinnamon, a spot near the base above, and tip black: the tip of the trunk of the tail, attains the tip of the os calcis, when the leg is extended; beneath white, immaculate; tail cinnamon towards the tip, tip black; posterior feet four-toed, anterior five-toed.

ft. in.

Total length (excepting the hair at tip of tail) 3 9½

Trunk of the tail 1 0½

Hind foot os calcis to tip of claw 0 7¹⁄₅

Fore foot elbow to tip of claw 1 0¾

Ears from top of head 0 4

Rostrum from anterior can thus of the eye 0 3¾

Taken in a trap, baited with the body of a wild cat.

The line on the anterior side of the anterior feet, near the wrist, is wanting in a second specimen.

This species varies very much in size; another specimen measured—

ft. in.

In total length (excepting the hair at tip of tail) 3 2½

Tail (excepting the hair at tip of tail) 0 11¾

Ear from top of head to tip 0 3⁵⁄₈

The snout was narrower than in the preceding specimens, but in colour similar.

Another specimen was destitute of the cinnamon colour, excepting on the snout, where it was but slightly apparent; the general colour was, therefore, gray with an intermixture of black, in remote spots and lines, varying in position and figure with the direction of the hair.

2. Canis nubilus.—Dusky, the hair cinereous at base, then brownish-black, then gray, then black; the proportion of black upon the hair is so considerable as to give to the whole animal a much darker colour than the darkest of the latrans; but the gray of the hairs combining with the black tips, in the general effect, produce a mottled appearance; the gray colour, predominates on the lower part of the sides; ears short, deep brownish-black, with a patch of gray hair on the anterior side within; muzzle blackish above; superior lips, anterior to the canine teeth, gray; inferior jaw at tip, and extending in a narrowed line backwards, nearly to the origin of the neck, gray; beneath dusky ferruginous, greyish, with long hair between the hind thighs, and with a large white spot on the breast; the ferruginous colour is very much narrowed on the neck, but is dilated on the lower part of the cheeks; legs brownish-black, with but a slight admixture of gray hairs, excepting on the anterior edge of the hind thighs, and the lower edgings of the toes, where the gray predominates; the tail is short, fusiform, a little tinged with ferruginous black above, near the base and at tip, the tip of the trunk hardly attaining to the os calcis; the longer hairs of the back, particularly over the shoulders, resemble a short sparse mane.

ft. in.

Length from the tip of the nose to the origin of the tail 4 3¾

Length of the trunk of the tail 1 1

Ear, from anterior angle to the tip 0 3¾

From the anterior angle of the ear, to the posterior canthus of the eye, 0 4¾

From anterior canthus of the eye, to the middle of the tip of the nose, 0 5½

Between the anterior angles of the ears, rather more than 0 3

The aspect of this animal is far more fierce and formidable than either the common red wolf, or the prairie wolf, and is of a more robust form. The length of the ears and tail distinguish it at once from the former, and its greatly superior size, besides the minor characters of colour, &c., separate it from the prairie wolf. As the black wolf (C. lycaon,) is described to be of a deep and uniform black colour, and his physiognomy is represented to be nearly the same as that of the common wolf, it is beyond a doubt different from this species. It has the mane of the mexicanus. It diffuses a strong and disagreeable odour, which scented the clothing of Messrs. Peale and Dougherty, who transported the animal several miles from where they killed it to the cantonment.

1. Sylvia celatus.—Above dull greenish-olive; rump and tail coverts purer greenish-olive; primaries and tail feathers blackish-brown, olive-green on the exterior margins, and white on the interior margin; head very slightly and inconspicuously crested; crest with the feathers orange at base; bill horn colour, slender, base of the inferior mandible whitish beneath; beneath olivaceous yellow; inferior tail coverts pure yellow; legs dusky.

Length 5¼ inches.

Shot at Engineer Cantonment early in May. This bird is distinguished by the colour of the feathers on the crown of the head, which are of a fulvous colour, tipped with the same colour as that of the neck and back, so that the fulvous colour does not appear at first sight. The wings are destitute of any white band, and the margins of the six exterior primaries are much paler than those of the others. We cannot find any description of this bird; it seems, however, to approach nearest to the S. leucogastra, Steph., Nashville warbler of Wilson; but in our specimen the belly is not white, neither does Wilson's description of the colour of the head of his Nashville warbler agree at all with that of our bird.

2. Sylvia bifasciata.—Above bluish; all beneath white; head highly varied with darker; between the eyes and bill blackish; bill black; interscapulars lineate with blackish; wings blackish; shoulders bluish; wing coverts with two white bands; primaries margined with white on the inner side, and with plumbeous on the exterior side; tail black; feathers blackish, white on the inner margin, and plumbeous on the exterior margin; and, excepting the two middle ones, with a white spot on the inner side, near the tip; flanks spotted with plumbeous; feet black.

Length rather more than 4¾ inches.

Shot in May, near Engineer Cantonment. This species seems to approach very closely to S. cærulea.

Genus Limosa, Cuv.

Limosa scolopacea.—Dusky cinereous; bill, straight; upper mandible a little longer, and very slightly arquated towards the tip; the grooves continue to near the tip, about as long again as the head, yellowish green; tip black, dilated, rugose, with a dorsal groove; palate with reflected, cartilaginous spines; head with a line from the upper mandible, passing over the eye and inferior orbit; white cheeks, chin, throat, and origin of the breast, cinereous; the plumage margined with dull whitish; back beneath the interscapulars, white; rump, plumage white, fasciate with black; tail coverts, and tail white fasciate with black, which latter colour is more abundant; lesser wing coverts margined with whitish; greater wing coverts black, terminal margin white: secondaries black, margin and submargin white; primaries black, interior ones very slightly edged with white; outer shaft white, a little longer than the second; breast and belly white; sides spotted or undulated with blackish cinereous; inferior tail coverts with black abbreviated bands, the white prevailing; feet dirty greenish; toes webbed at base, the exterior one reaching the first joint of outer toe, the interior one very short; hind toe rather long.

inches.

Length from tip of bill to that of the tail, 11¾

Length of bill, 2¾

Length of feet, 5¾

Length from the knee to the origin of the feathers, 1¹⁄₁₀

Tail projecting more than one inch beyond the tip of the wing.

Several specimens were shot in a pond near the Bowyer creek. Corresponds with the genus scolopax, Cuv. in having the dorsal grooves at the tip of the upper mandible, and in having this part dilated and rugose; but the eye is not large, nor is it placed far back upon the head; which two latter characters, combined with its more elevated and slender figure, and the circumstance of the thighs being denudated of feathers high above the knee, and the exterior toe being united to the middle toe by a membrane, which extends as far as the first joint, and the toes being also margined, combine to distinguish this species from those of the genus to which the form and characters of its bill would refer it, and approach it more closely to limosa. In one specimen the two exterior primaries on each wing were light brown, but the quills were white. It may perhaps with propriety be considered as the type of a new genus, and under the following characters, be placed between the genera scolopax and limosa.

Bill longer than the head, dilated and rugose at tip: tip slightly curved downwards, and with a dorsal groove: nasal groove elongated; feet long, an extensive naked space above the knee; toes slightly margined, a membrane connecting the basal joints of the exterior toes; first of the primaries rather longest.

Genus Pelidna, Cuv.

1. Pelidna pectoralis.—Bill black, reddish-yellow at base; upper mandible with a few indented punctures near the tip; head above black, plumage margined with ferruginous, a distinct brown line from the eye to the upper mandible; cheeks and neck beneath cinereous very slightly tinged with rufous, and lineate with blackish; orbits and line over the eye white; chin white; neck above dusky, plumage margined with cinereous, scapulars, interscapulars, and wing coverts black, margined with ferruginous, and near the exterior tips with whitish; primaries dusky, slightly edged with whitish, outer quill shaft white; back, (beneath the interscapulars, rump) and tail coverts black, immaculate; tail feathers dusky, margined with white at tip, two intermediate ones longest, acute, attaining the tip of the wings, black, edged with ferruginous: breast, venter, vent and inferior tail coverts white, plumage blackish at base; sides white, the plumage towards the tail slightly lineate with dusky; feet greenish-yellow; toes divided to the base.

Length nearly 9 inches.

Bill 1¹⁄₈ inches

This bird in many respects resembles cinclus, but as the average size of that bird is stated at seven inches and one or two lines, ours is doubtless a distinct species. Many flocks of them were seen at Engineer Cantonment, both in the spring and autumn, the individuals of which corresponded in point of magnitude: we add a description for the information of ornithologists. It is described from a specimen in the autumnal plumage. In the spring dress, the colour of the superior part of the bird is much paler, almost destitute of black, and the feathers are brownish, margined with pale cinereous; the superior part of the head is always darker than any part of the neck, and margined with ferruginous; the plumage of the neck beneath, and the breast, does not appear to be subject to so much change, as that of the superior part of the body.

2. Pelidna cinclus. Var.—Above blackish-brown, plumage edged with cinereous, or whitish; head and neck above cinereous with dilated fuscous lines; eyebrows white; a brown line between the eye and corner of the mouth, above which the front is white; cheeks, sides of the neck, and throat, cinereous, lineate with blackish-brown; bill short, straight, black; chin, breast, belly, vent, and inferior tail coverts pure white, plumage plumbeous at base; scapulars and lesser wing coverts margined with white; greater wing coverts with a broad white tip; primaries surpassing the tip of the tail, blackish, slightly edged with whitish, exterior shaft white, shafts whitish on the middle of their length; rump blackish, plumage margined at tip with cinereous tinctured with rufous; tail coverts white, submargins black; tail feathers cinereous margined with white, two middle ones slightly longer, black, margined with white; legs blackish. A male.

Length to tip of tail 7 inches.

Bill ⁷⁄₈ of an inch.

This bird was shot in November, near Engineer Cantonment, and it is probably a variety of the very variable cinclus in its winter plumage.—James.