NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 81 



Chrysomitris (Pseudomitris*) psaltria, Cassin, Pr. A. N. S., Philadelphia, 

 1865, p. 93. 



Abundant. Summer resident. Arrives last of April, remains until middle 

 of September. Males are in dull plumage of females in August. Decidedly 

 gregarious in autumn. Feed almost exclusively on buds and seeds. Probably 

 less numerous in the southern portions of the Territory. 



In typical adult males the pileum is black, but this color does not extend below 

 *he eyes; the lores and auriculars being olive like the back. Upper parts, ex- 

 elusive of the wings, clear olivaceous, somewhat more yellowish, and with con- 

 cealed white on the rump. The back may be somewhat marked wjth blackish 

 sp >ts, though rarely to the extent represented in Audubon's plate. The wings 

 are black, though some of the lesser and median coverts are tipped with olive. 

 The greater coverts are so broadly tipped with white as to form a conspicuous 

 transalar fascia, and the secondaries and inner primaries are still more broadly 

 edged on their outer margins with white. The tail is black, the three outer rectri- 

 ces white on their inner webs to within a short distance from '.heir tips, the 

 shafts white along the white portions of the feather. A white spot at the base 

 of the primaries (except on the first two or three,) is partially concealed by the 

 bastard quills. Below, with the feathers on the side of the lower mandible, 

 yellow. 



The female has no black pileum, the crown being concolor with the back. 

 The yellow of the under parts is less pure and bright. The edgings of the 

 wings and coverts are grayish and narrow. The white on the inner webs of the 

 lateral rectrices is only indicated by a small, irregular, dull gray spot. The 

 spot at the base of the primaries is small and inconspicuous. 



Young birds in August are above very dull and rather ochraceous olive, not 

 conspicuously different from the under parts. The edgings of the wings are 

 tinged with ochraceous. The basal primary spot is very small. There is uo 

 Judication of white on the rectrices. 



Old males changing plumage during both the vernal and autumnal moult, 

 .-have the olive of the back dull and obscured by dusky ; the pileum somewhat 

 variegated with olive. The wings and coverts have scarcely a trace of white 

 edging. The under parts are quite brightly yellow. 



Why I have thus gone into detail in characterizing this species will be evi- 

 dent from the succeeding article. I wish it to be noted that the diagnostic 

 points of psaltria, as compared with mexicana, lie in the black pileum definitely 

 bounded on all sides with olive, not descending on the sides of the head below 

 the eye ; and in the decided olive of the upper parts. The bill is conical and 

 quite stout; the gonys straight; the culmen a little convex. The species ex- 

 tends over the western portion of the continent to the Pacific, and nearly, or 

 quite, to the Sonoran border. 



(139.) Chrysomitris Pseudomitris mexicanus (Swains.) Bonap. 



[A. Var. mexicanus Swains.] 



Carduelis mexicanus, Swainson, Syn. Mex. Birds, in Phil. Mag. i. 1827, p. 



435. (Table Lands of Mexico. Real del Monte. Temiscaltipec.) 



Wagler, Isis von Oken, 1831, p. 525. 

 Chrysomitris mexicanus, Bonaparte, Consp. Av. i. 1850, p. 516. Baird, 



Birds N. A., 1858, p. 423. 

 Chrysomitris (Pseudomitris) mexicana, Cassin, Pr. A. N. S. Ph. 1865, p. 93. 

 Astragalinus mexicanus, Cab. Mus. Hein., 185J, p. 159. 

 Fringilki melanoxantha, "Licht. Mus. Berol." (Quoted by Wagler, Isis, 



1831. p. 525, as a syn. of C. mexicana Sw.) 

 Fringiila texensis, Giraud, Sixteen Sp. Tex. Bds. 1841, pi. v. fig. 1. G's 



type examined by me. Belly not white as stated. 



* Pseudnmitris, Cass., nov. subg. ut supra. Type Frin. psaltria, Say. Considered as probably 

 belonging to subfamily tyanospizinx of Sclater. 



1866.J 6 



