SP. CHAR. Form heavy and robust; wings moderate, the third to fifth
quill longest; the first shorter than the seventh; outer four with
inner webs cut. Feet strong, the tarsi and toes robust, and claws not
very acute. Dimensions: Wing, 13.50–17.25; tail, 8.50–11.30; culmen,
.90–1.15; tarsus, 2.70–3.40; middle toe, 1.60–1.95; weight, 2½ to 4
lbs. Colors: _Adult_: tail, deep lateritious-rufous, paler at the tip,
and usually with a subterminal bar of black (sometimes without any bar,
and sometimes with numerous bars to the base). Above blackish-brown,
more or less variegated with whitish on the scapulars and wing-coverts;
beneath white, usually with a belt of blackish spots across the abdomen;
sometimes wholly dusky or blackish beneath, but the pectoral region
always appreciably lighter than the abdomen; under surface of primaries
plain white anterior to their emargination. _Young._ Tail grayish-brown,
with nine or ten narrow, sharply defined bands of blackish. Pattern
of other parts as in the adult, but the white purer, and the plumage
generally with less rufous.
HAB. Entire continent of North America; West Indies.
The plumage varies from wholly dusky blackish, with a paler, more
brownish, pectoral area, and the tail of the adult with numerous black
bars, or indications of bars, to the very base (var. _calurus_), through
various proportionate degrees of rufous and dusky, to entirely pure
white beneath, without any spotting; the tail of the adult without a
single black bar (vars. _krideri_ and _lucasanus_).
Var. borealis, GMELIN.