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. _Magna_, _mexicana_, _meridionalis_ and _hippocrepis_, are most similar in coloration; _neglecta_ is most dissimilar compared with any of the others. Though each possesses peculiar characters, they are only of degree; for in the most widely different forms (_neglecta_ and _mexicana_) there is not the slightest departure from the pattern of coloration; it is only a matter of extension or restriction of the several colors, or a certain one of them, that produces the differences. Each modification of plumage is attended by a still greater one of proportions, as will be seen from the diagnoses; thus, though _neglecta_ is the largest of the group, it has actually the smallest legs and feet; with nearly the same general proportions, _magna_ exceeds it in the latter respects (especially in the bill), while _mexicana_, a very much smaller bird than either, has disproportionally and absolutely larger legs and feet united with the smallest size otherwise in the whole series. _Meridionalis_ presents no differences from the last, except in proportions of bill and feet; for while the latter is the smallest of the series, next to _neglecta_, it has a bill much exceeding that of any other. The markings of the upper plumage of the young or even winter birds are different in pattern from those of the adult; the tendency being toward the peculiar features of the adult _neglecta_; the various species in these stages being readily distinguishable, however, by the general characters assigned. _Mexicana_ and _neglecta_ are both in proportions and colors the most widely different in the whole series; _hippocrepis_ and _neglecta_ the most similar. The relation of the several races to each other is about as follows:— A. Yellow of throat confined within maxillæ. Crown with black streaks predominating. Smallest species, with reddish tints, and maximum amount of black. Largest bill _meridionalis_. Smallest bill; largest feet _mexicana_. Next largest species, with less reddish tints, and smaller amount of black. Bill and feet the standard of comparison _magna_. Crown with the light streaks predominating. Narrowest pectoral crescent _hippocrepis_. B. Yellow of throat covering maxillæ. Crown with black and light streaks about equal.