480 GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 



approach of fine weather. While here they appear silent 

 and solitary, and are not difficult to approach. Their 

 food, as usual, is seeds of grasses, insects, and their larvae. 



The length of this species is 7^ inches ; alar extent about 10. 

 The back streaked with dark rusty-brown and pale bluish-white ; 

 tlie wings dusky, edged broadly with brown ; 2 white bands pro- 

 duced on the wing by the broad white tips of the greater and lesser 

 wing-coverts ; tertials black, edged with brown and white. Rurnp 

 and tailcoverts drab tinted with lighter. Tail long, rounded, dusky, 

 broadly edged with drab ; belly white ; vent pale ochreous. Bill 

 cinnamon-brown. Legs and feet, about the color of the bill, but 

 lighter. Iris reddish-hazel. — In the female the white on the head 

 is less pure, the black smaller in extent, and the ash on the breast 

 darker ; she is also somewhat less. 



LARK FINCH. 



(Fringilla grammacea, Say. Bonap. Am. Orn. i. p. 47. pi. 5. fig. 3. 

 Phil. Museum, No. 62S8.) 



Sf. Charact. — Head striped with black and whitish ; tail rounded, 

 the lateral feathers partly white ; a white patch on the wing ; 

 above greyish-brown with dusky spots. 



For this species we are again indebted to Mr. Say, 

 who observed it in abundance near the Council Bluffs and 

 the neighbouring country of the Missouri in the spring as 

 well as in the month of June. It appears to be wholly 

 confined to the west side of the Mississippi, and probably 

 extends to Mexico. They frequent the prairie grounds, 

 and seldom if ever alight on tr^es ; they sing sweetly, 

 and, like Larks, have the habit of continuing their notes 

 while on the wing. 



This species is C^ inches long. On the top of the head there are 

 2 widish dark lines, passing into ferruginous behind and separated 

 from each other by a light grey line ; another whitish line extends 

 from the base of the upper mandible over the eye to the sides of the 

 neck ; another small, interrupted, almost similarly colored line passes 

 from the bill beneath the eye ; a broadish space of umber extends 



