1887.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 103 



NOTES ON THE NORTHERN PALiEARCTIC BULLFINCHES. 

 By LiEOIVIIARD 8T£JI>iE:c:E:R. 



Wbeu, at the request of Mr. Lucieu M. Turner, five years ago, I ex- 

 amined the type of Fyrrhula cassini (Baird) and wrote for liis report 

 on the Birds of Alaska an article on the subject, the collection of the 

 United States National Museum was rather deficient in Old World 

 FyrrhuUcj so that I had to go by descriptions and figures only. Since 

 then the Museum has received many valuable additions to its Palaearctic 

 collection, among which a pair of the Siberian Gray Bullfinch {FyrrJmla 

 cineracea Cab.) which prove to me, beyond doubt, that my conclusions 

 arrived at five years ago were quite correct, viz, that the type-specimen 

 of Fyrrhula cassini is a female, notwithstanding the statement of the 

 collector to the contrary, and, lurthermore, that it is the female of the 

 species which subsequently was named Fyrrhula cineracea. 



I shall not repeat here the reasons upon whicli I then based my con- 

 clusions ; nor will a very detailed comparison be necessary now. Suf- 

 fice it to say that the type-specimen, U. S. National Museum, No. 

 49955, collected at Nulato, Alaska, January, 1867, by Prof. W. H. 

 Dall, agrees very well with a female of P. cineracea., II. S. National 

 Museum, No. 101978, collected at Onon, Siberia, January 11, 1873, by 

 Dr. B. Dybowski. The general coloration of the plumage both above 

 and underneath is identical, the only difference 1 can conceive being 

 the faint rosy wash near the tips of the ear-coverts of the former. The 

 type of P. cassini lacks the red spot on the outer web of the inner- 

 most tertial, a feature characteristic of P. cineracea, though our speci- 

 men of the latter has a faint indication of this spot. The white spot 

 on the outer pair of tail-feathers is the same in both specimens, but 

 in the Onon specimen it is confined to the inner web, while in that from 

 Alaska it also occupies the whole of the adjoining part of the outer web. 

 In addition the following comparative measurements are appended: 



Wing 



Tail-feathers 



Exposed culinen 

 Tarsus 



Since I made the first determination I have also had the opportunity 

 of examining the type of P. cassini with a female of Taczanowski's P. 

 l-amtschatica, but the latter is much clearer gray, and has the band across 

 the wing much broader and whiter. 



