. The birds of the Red Deer River, Alberta [microform]. Oiseaux; Birds. 16 Taverneh, Bird« of Red Deer River, Alta. \^ identity of many of these birds and many may have been Swainson's instead of Red-tails. In all twenty-two specimens were taken. Of these, except for a very faint to pronounced barring of the tail, thwe is no constant character to separate them from eastern horeaUs. They average slightly darker on the uiider-parts but at least two birds are lighter here than typical eastern birds while several are indistinguishable in this respect. Many of the tails are very light, but new inco
. The birds of the Red Deer River, Alberta [microform]. Oiseaux; Birds. 16 Taverneh, Bird« of Red Deer River, Alta. \^ identity of many of these birds and many may have been Swainson's instead of Red-tails. In all twenty-two specimens were taken. Of these, except for a very faint to pronounced barring of the tail, thwe is no constant character to separate them from eastern horeaUs. They average slightly darker on the uiider-parts but at least two birds are lighter here than typical eastern birds while several are indistinguishable in this respect. Many of the tails are very light, but new incoming plumage of richer coloration indicates that this is due to the bleaching power of the bright prairie sun and is an acquired and not an inherent character. Fading however does not account for all the lightness, as in some cases the feathers are mottled or suffused with white from the shaft outward. While this culminates in a female taken July 9, the half grown offspring of the same bird has a dark tail similar to eastern juveniles, while all other juveniles having enough tail to judge from, show appreciable amounts of intermixed red such aa is not seen in eastern birds. I was in hopes that we would find krideri occupying this desert-like country but was disappointed, as we procured nothing that could not be attributed to cahtruB. One interesting point observed was that like usually mated with like, a Ught bird generally had a similarly colored mate and vice versa. Only in one case did we definitely discover a very dark bird paired with a light one. We obtained the three young of this pah- and while they are hardly sufficiently fledged to accurately determine the characters they would finally exhibit, they show considerable difference in color. One tends towards an almost uniformly dark bird while the other two have plain indications of cream colored breasts and throats. It is evident therefore that the darkness of plumage is a congenital condition and not assumed with age;
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishers, booksubjectbirds
