FKINGILLIM; THE FINCHES. 245 



The breeding range of this species is much more restricted than 

 that of C. lapponicus, heing confined to the interior of Arctic Amer- 

 ica, chiefly in the basin of Mackenzie and Anderson rivers, including 

 the region about the Great Bear and Great Slave lakes. In fact, it 

 is emphatically a bird of the great interior valleys of the continent, 

 between the Rocky Mountains on the one side and the Atlantic 

 forest region on the other. 



GENUS RHYNCHOPHANES BAIRD. 



RhynchopTianes BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 432. lype.Plectrophanes mccoivnii LAWR. 



GEN. CHAR. Bill stout, conical, the gonys longer than the hind toe, with its angle con- 

 siderably posterior to the middle of the bill. Maxilla equal to the mandible in depth; 

 mandibular tomium forming a decided angle at the base. Middle toe, with claw, shorter 

 than tarsus, the claw reaching beyond that of the hallux. Tail decidedly shorter than the 

 distance from the carpal joint of the wing to the tips of the tertials. 



In the form of the bill of tliis well-marked genus there is nothing 

 to indicate its near affinity to the genera Plectrophenax and Calca- 

 rius; but in other parts of its organization it evidently approaches 

 much nearer to these forms than any other. The bill is wonderfully 

 similar to that of Calamospiza, the only conspicuous difference being 

 its considerably narrower form, particularly the mandible, as com- 

 pared with the maxilla. The lateral, as well as the vertical, out- 

 lines are very nearly the same, even to the well-marked angle at 

 the base of the mandibular tomium. In other characters, how- 

 ever, the two genera are so different as to warrant their assignment 

 to distinct groups, or subfamilies. 



The genus Rhynclioplianes contains a single species, peculiar to 

 the interior of North America. 



Rhynchophanes mccownii (Lawr.) 



McCOWN'S LONGSPUR. 



Popular synonym. McCown's Bunting. 



PlectroplKiiu** mccon-iui LAWR. Ann. Lye. N. Y. vi, 1851, 122. BAIRD, B. N. Am. 437; Cat. 

 N. Am. B. 1859, No. 330. CouES.Key, 1872,134; Check List, 1873, No. 156; B. N. W. 1874, 

 124. B. B. & B. Hist. N. Am. B. i, 1874, 523. pi. 24, fig. 1. 

 Rhynchophanes mccowni BAIRD. KIDGW. Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 190. 



HAB. Great Plains of the United States, breeding northward (in Dakota, Wyoming, 

 etc.) and migrating south in winter through Colorado, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and 

 Arizona, to northern Mexico; occasional winter visitor to prairies of Illinois. 



