FRINGILLID.E - THE FIXCHES. 31 



Melospiza lincolni, Baird. 



LINCOLN'S FINCH. 



Frinyilla lincolni, AuD. Orn. Biog. 11, 1834, 539, pi. cxciii. — JTutt. Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 

 569. Linaria lincolni, Rich. List. 1837. Passerculus lincolni, Bonap. List, 1838. 

 Peuam lincolni, AuD. Synopsis, 1839, 113. — Is. Birds Am. Ill, 1841, 116, pi. cL\xvii. 

 — BoNAP. Consp. 1850, 481. — Ib. Comptes Rendus, XXVII, 1854, 920. Melospiza 

 lincolni, Bah-.d, Birds N. Am. 1858, 482. — Dall & Bannister, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 

 285 (Alaska). — Cooi'EK, Oni. Cal. I, 216. Passerculus zonarius, (Bp.) Sclater, Pr. 

 Zobl. Soc. 1856, 305. 



Sp. Char. Genera! a.spect above that of M. melodia, but paler and less reddish. Crown 

 dull chestnut, with a median and lateral or superciliary ash-colored stripe ; each feather 

 above streaked centrally with black. Back with narrow streaks of black. Beneath 

 white, with a maxillary stripe curving round behind the ear-coverts; a well-defined band 

 across the breast, extending down the sides, and the under tail-coverts, of brownish-yellow. 

 The maxillary stripe margined above and below with lines of black spots and a dusky 

 line behind eye. The throat, upper part of breast, and sides of the body, with streaks of 

 black, smallest in the middle of the former. The pectoral bands are sometimes paler. 

 Bill above dusky ; base of lower jaw and legs yellowish. Length, 5.60 ; wing, 2.60. 



Hab. United States from Atlantic to Pacific, north to the Yukon River and the 

 Mackenzie, and south through Mexico to Panama. Oaxaca (Scl. 1858, 303) ; Xalapa 

 (ScL. 1859, 365) ; Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 18) ; Vera Cruz, winter (Su.m. M. B. S. I, 552). 



There is little or no difference in .specimens of this liii-d from the whole 

 of its range, except that one from near Aspinwall is considerably smaller than 

 usual, the streaks on the back narrower, and the color above more reddish. 

 A young bird from Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie, is much like the adult. 



Habits. Lincoln's Finch was first met \vith by Mr. Audubon in Labrador, 

 and named in honor of one of his companions, Mr. Thomas Lincoln, now 

 residing at Dennysville, Maine, by whom tlie first specimen was procured. 

 His attention was attracted to it by the sweet notes of its song, which, he 

 states, surpass in ^■igo^ those of any of our American Sparrows with which 

 he was acquainted. He describes this song as a compound of the notes 

 of a Canary and a Woodlark of Europe. The bird was unusually wild, and 

 was procured with great difficulty. Other specimens, afterwards obtained, 

 did not exhibit the same degree of wildness, and they became more com- 

 mon as the party proceeded farther north. He did not meet with its nest. 



He descrilies the habits of this species as resembling, in some respects, 

 those of the Song Sparrow. It mounts, like that bird, on the topmost twig of 

 some tall shrub to chant for whole hours at a time, or dives into the thickets 

 and hops from branch to branch until it reaches the ground in search of those 

 insects or berries on which it feeds. It moves swiftly away when it discovers 

 an enemy, and, if forced to take to flight, flies low and rapidly to a consider- 

 able distance, jerking its tail as it proceeds, and throwing itself into tlie thick- 

 est bush it meets. Mr. Audubon found it mostly near streams, and always 

 in the small valleys guarded from the prevalent cold winds of that country. 



