Mr. Nuttall met with this species on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains, but as he apparently did not appreciate the difference between this form and the _oregonus_, we cannot determine with certainty to which his descriptions apply in all cases. He found it, in manners and habits, the counterpart of our common eastern species, frequenting forests and scratching among the dead leaves among bushes and thickets. He describes it as more shy than the common species. If the nest be invaded, the male shows more boldness, and reiterates his complaints until the cause of his alarm is removed. He speaks of its warble as quaint and monotonous, and very similar to the notes of the Towhee,—but the note of our bird, _towhee_, is never heard west of the mountains. In its stead this bird is said to have a note like the mew of a cat. The egg of the _arcticus_ is oval in shape, and measures one inch in length by .70 in breadth. It has a white ground, but is so generally and so thickly covered with fine dots of umber-brown, intermingled with paler markings of lavender and neutral tints, that the ground can hardly be distinguished. SECTION II. _Head and body above brown; throat with a light patch._ Pipilo fuscus, SWAINSON. Synopsis of the Varieties. COMMON CHARACTERS. Grayish-brown above, with a more or less appreciable rufous tinge on the crown. A patch covering the throat, ochraceous or white, contrasting with the surrounding portions, and encircled more or less completely, especially posteriorly, by dusky spots; lores like the chin. Crissum deep ochraceous, the lower part of abdomen tinged more or less with the same. A. No trace of white tips to middle wing-coverts. Throat ochraceous. _a._ Crown only faintly tinged with rufous. 1. Abdomen pale grayish-brown; throat and lores deep reddish-ochraceous; the deep ochraceous confined posteriorly to lower tail-coverts. Wing, 3.90; tail, 5.00. _Hab._ California var. _crissalis_. 2. Abdomen distinctly white centrally, but surrounded by grayish laterally and anteriorly; throat and lores pale ochraceous; deep ochraceous of crissum extending forward over lower part of abdomen. Wing, 3.80; tail, 4.00. _Hab._ Mexico var. _fuscus_.[24] _b._ Crown very distinctly rufous. 3. The ochraceous of posterior under parts spreading over whole lower part of abdomen and flanks. Ochraceous of the throat palest anteriorly, the chin and lores being almost white; it spreads over the jugulum also, outside the series of rather scattered dusky spots. Whole breast white. Wing, 3.80; tail, 4.30. _Hab._ Southern Middle Province of United States ar. _mesoleucus_.