SEA-SIDE FINCH. 505 



circles of white. Wing-coverts and tertials brown-black, broadly 

 edged with pale rufous. Tail short, wedge-shaped, all the feathers 

 sharply pointed. Chin whitish ; breast yellowish-white, with point- 

 ed dark spots ; belly white ; vent and rump dark buflf; the former 

 spotted with dusky. From the base of the upper mandible a broad 

 stripe of cinereous extends over the crown to the hind-head, bordered 

 on either side by one of dusky-brown. Bill dusky. Legs pale 

 brownish-yellow. Iris hazel. 



t SHARP-TAILED FINCH. 



(Fringilla caudacuta, Lath. Index Ornith. i. p. 459. No. 85.) 



Sp. Charact. — Varied with brown and pale rufous, throat of the 

 latter color and a line of the same over the eyes ; neck behind 

 darkish rufous ; tail even, the feathers sharp-pointed; bill and 

 legs pale. 



V 



This species, described by Latham as coming from 

 Georgia, known also by the name of Spotted Grey Spar- 

 row, appears to possess the same lowly habits as the two 

 preceding species, living chiefly among the grassy herb- 

 age, and probably near the coast. It has yet, however, 

 escaped all our ornithologists. Our Sparrows do not 

 change their plumage so much at any period, as to give 

 any probability to the opinion, that this bird may be a 

 variety of the preceding. Besides, the length of this indi- 

 vidual, only 4^ inches, is incompatible with the size of 

 the Shore Finch. With much doubt it is quoted by 

 Prince Bonaparte as a synonyme for Fringilla savana- 

 rum ; the feathers of the tail, however, in this species, 

 are scarcely at all pointed. 



SEA-SIDE FINCH. 



{Fringilla maritima, Wilsojv, iv. p. 68. pi. 34. fig. 2. Audubon, pi. 

 93. Orn. i. p. 470.) 



Sp. Charact. — Stripe over the eye and edge of the shoulder yel- 

 low; breast cinereous; belly white ; ventbuif, spotted with dus- 

 ky ; tail rounded ; bill rather stout and long. 



43 



