CHONDESTES. 375 
outer ones. The tail is shorter than the wings, and much rounded. ‘he tarsus and 
middle toe, with its claw, are subequal, and the lateral toes are equal but short. The 
general colour of the plumage is striated above, the head strongly marked with elon- 
gated stripes of black and white ; there is an isolated black spot on the chest, as in some 
species of Pyrgisoma, and the white tips to the tail-feathers extend to all the rectrices 
except the middle pair. 
1. Chondestes strigatus. 
Chondestes strigatus, Sw. Phil. Mag. n. ser. i. p. 4351. 
Chondestes grammaca, Baird, Mex. Bound. Surv. ii., Birds, p. 15°; Scl. P.Z. S. 1859, p. 879°; 
1864, p. 174*; Dresser, Ibis, 1865, p. 488°; Dugés, La Nat. i. p. 140°; Sumichrast, Mem. 
Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p. 552"; Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 562° (partim) ; Lawr. 
Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 22°; Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 278”; Sennett, Bull. 
U.S. Geol. Surv. iv. p. 19"; v. 391”. 
Chondestes grammica, Coues, Key N. Am. B. ed. 2, p. 884° (partim). 
Chondestes grammica strigata, Ridgw. Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. iii. p. 217"; Belding, Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. 
vi. p. 843%, 
Capite summo castaneo ad frontem nigro, superciliis et stria verticali sordide albis, corpore reliquo supra fusco, 
interscapulio nigro striato, alis et cauda nigricantibus fusco limbatis, illis sordide albo bifasciatis, remigibus 
ad basin quoque albidis, hujus rectricibus omnibus (preter duas medianas) albo plus minusve terminatis ; 
stria per oculos nigra, regione parotica castanea infra albo marginata, parte antica nigra, macula lunulata 
sub oculos alba; subtus albus, stria utrinque rictali elongata et macula pectorali nigris, cervicis lateribus 
et hypochondriis fusco lavatis ; rostro corneo, mandibula pallida ; pedibus carneis. Long. tota 6-0, ale 3:5, 
caudee 2°75, rostri a rictu 0:5, tarsi 0-8. (Descr. maris ex Oaxaca, Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Norta America, from Iowa and Illinois to the Pacific 8 13, Texas 511 12,—Mexico, 
Nuevo Leon (Couch?), Guaymas (Belding), Mazatlan (Grayson), plains of 
Colima (Xantus 1°), Guanajuato (Duges*), valley of Mexico (White+), Temiscal- 
tepec (Bullock 18), State of Vera Cruz (Sumichrast’), Puebla (Mus. Brit.), Oaxaca 
(Boucard*), Chihuitan, Santa Efigenia (Sumichrast®) ; GuaTEMALA, Barranco Hondo 
(0. 8.). 
Swainson described Mexican specimens of this species as Chondestes strigatus, but in 
a footnote to his paper he alludes to Mringilla grammaca as belonging to the same 
group’. Subsequent writers have considered both names applicable to the same species, 
C. grammaca, until Mr. Ridgway, in 1880, stated that he could detect constant differ- 
ences between birds from eastern and western America, and that the Mexican bird 
agreeing with the western that race might bear the name Chondestes grammica strigata', 
Unfortunately he does not state what these differences consist of. Moreover, Dr. Coues, 
writing in 1884, omits all mention of C. g. strigata }°. Compared with an adult bird 
from Illinois, the true C. grammaca, Mexican specimens differ in having a larger bill, 
the sides of the crown more rufous, the back less densely striated, each streak. being 
narrower, and the fawn-coloured edging of the wings broader. According to our view, 
