590 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



B. Tliriiut white ; sides streaked. 



3. P. belli. No white superciliary stripe. A dusky spot in middle of 

 the breast. Upper parts ashy, concolored, with indistinct streaks on the 

 back. Wings somewhat more brownish, the coverts with two indistinct 

 light (not white) bands. 



a. Wing, 2.50 : tail, 2..50 ; bill, ..31 ; tarsu.s, .74. Dorsal streaks 



obsolete. Hab. Calilbrnia. var. belli. 



/3. Wing, .3.20 ; tail, 3.20 ; bill, .3.5 ; tarsus, .70. Dorsal streaks 

 distinct. Hab. Middle Province of United States. var. n evadensi.t. 



Poospiza bilineata, Scl.meu. 



/ .ii-t.-^t 



BLACK-THROATED SPARROW. 



Emberiza bilineata, Cassix, Pr. A. N. Sc. Ph. V, Oct. 1850, 104, pi. iii, Texa^. — Ib. 

 lUust. I, V, 1854, 150, pi. xxiii. Poospiza bilineata, ScLATEU, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1857, 7. 

 — Baiud, Birds N. Am. 1858, 470. — Ib. Mex. Bound. II, Birds, 15. — Hei;km. X, 

 c. 14. — Cooper, Om. Cal. I, 1870, 203. 



Sp. Char. Above uniform unspotted a.shy-gray, tinged with light brown; purer and 

 more plumbeous anteriorly, and on sides of head and neck. Under parts white, tinged 



with plunilieous on the sides, and with 

 yellowisli-brown about the thiglis. A sharply 

 defined superciliary and maxillary stripe of 

 pure white, as also the lower eyelid, the 

 former margined internally with black. Loral 

 region black, passing insensibly into dark 

 slate on the ears. Chin and throat between 

 the white maxillary stripes black, ending on 

 the upper part of the breast in a rounded 

 outline. Tail black, the lateral feathers edged 

 externally and tipped on inner web with 

 white. Bill blue. Length, 5.40; wing, 2,75; 

 tail, 2,90. Sexes alike. 



Hab. Middle Province of United States 

 north to 40°, between Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada. (As far west as Janos and 

 the Mohave villages.) Matamoras (rare at San Antonio; Dresser, Ibis, 18G5, 488), 



This species in external form is very similar to P. belli, and will proLalily 

 fall ill the same genus. The cutting edges of the bill are much inHe.xed, 

 The first quill is shorter tlian the si.xlli. Tlie tail is a good deal rounded; 

 the feathers broad. 



The white maxillary stripe does not come (juite to tlie base of the under 

 jaw, which there is black. Tliere is a hoar}' tinge on tlie forehead. The 

 white superciliary stripes almost meet on the forehead. 



In the immature bird the tliroat is white with a dusky clouding along 

 each side ; the upper part of the breast streaked w itli lirown. 



Habits. The Pdack-tliroalcd Sparrow, generically associated with Bell's 

 Finch, has several well-marked distinctive peculiarities in liabits. Tiieir 

 eggs are also totally unlike those of the present species, being mucli more 



Poospiza bitineata. 



