418 FRINGILLIDA. 
pogonio interno terminatis, crisso albo intermixto; rostro plumbeo, pedibus corylinis. Long. tota 6:3, 
alee 3-5, caudse 2-7, rostri a rictu 0°7, tarsi 0°95. (Descr. maris ex Am. septr. Mus. nostr.) 
© supra fusca nigricante-fusco striata, superciliis indistincte albidis ; subtus alba fusco striata, hypochondriis 
brunnescentibus ; alis fusco-nigris, remigibus extus anguste albido limhatis, tectricibus intermediis cervino- 
albis. (Descr. exempl. ex Mexico. Mus. Brit.) 
Hab. Nortu America, Central Plains to Rocky Mountains, Texas ?.—Murxico, Sonora, 
Espia (Kennerly 7), Guaymas (Belding’), Guanajuato (Dugeés *). 
This peculiar bird is only found within our limits along the northern frontier 2 and 
southwards through Central Mexico to Guanajuato+. In the States it is a well-known 
species from the high central plains to the Rocky Mountains, and thence it occurs 
more sparingly to the Pacific Ocean and to Lower California. 
In Sonora and at Espia the naturalists of the U.S. Boundary Survey state? that 
C. bicolor occurred in large flocks in the valley of the Rio Grande in the early morning 
and the members of which feed in the hills during the greater part of the day amongst 
bushes, seeds being their apparent food. 
The notes of C. deculor are described as very pleasing, and when singing the male is 
wont to mount in the air after the manner of the Sky-Lark. 
Its nest is placed on the ground, and constructed of looscly arranged dry grasses. 
The eggs are of a uniform light blue like those of Spiza americana. 
Dr. Stejneger’s name melanocorys ® for this bird has recently been adopted by North- 
American ornithologists °, Townsend's title Fringilla bicolor being supposed to clash with 
Fringilla bicolor of Linneus. It may have done so between the years 1837 and 1838, 
but the difficulty was wholly removed when Bonaparte proposed the genus Calamospiza 
for the present bird in the latter year. We are not aware that any difficulty on this 
score has occurred in using the names Culamuspiza bicolor and Phonipara bicolor for two 
totally distinct Finches for nearly fifty years, and none is likely to arise that we know 
of, unless, indeed, ornithologists in a synthetic mood merge Calamospiza and Phonipara 
in the same genus: melanocorys will then come in usefully, but in the meantime 
bicolor answers its purpose. 
CALCARIUS. 
Calcarius, Bechstein, Tasch. Vég. Deutschl. i. p. 180 (1803); Stejn. Proc. U. 8. Nat. Mus. v. p. 23; 
Check-List N. Am. B. p. 268. 
Plectrophanes, Meyer, Vég. Liv- u. Estl. p. xii. 
Centrophanes, Kaup, Entw. eur. Thierw. p. 158. 
That Calcarius is the right generic name to employ for the Lapland Bunting, C. lap- 
ponicus (Linn.), and its allies, we think is still open to doubt, for Bechstein first used this 
name in a sectional or subgeneric sense. For many years both Plectrophanes and Centro- 
phanes have been largely employed both in Europe and America as the generic name for 
C. lapponicus and its allies. 
The genus contains three, or, if Lthynchophanes maccowni be included, four, well- 
marked species, of which C. ornatus alone occurs within our limits in Central Mexico. 
