154 BITLLETIN" 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Ornithologists' Union, Check List, 1886, no. 535. — Townsexd, Cruise " Cor- 

 win", 1885, 1887, 100, colored plate (Hall I.).— Henshaw, in Nelson's 

 Eep. Nat.. Hist. Coll. Alaska, 1887, 182 (St. Michaels, Nushagak, Hall I., etc., 

 Alaska). — Shaepe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xii, 1888, 577. — Stoxe, Auk, xv, 

 1898, 269 (Bethel, Kuskokwim R., Alaska, 90 m. from coast, Jan. 4). 



P. \lectrophenax'] hijperhoreus Ridgway, Man. N. Am. Birds, 1887, 403. 



Passerina hyperhorea Ridgway, Auk, xv, Oct., 1898, 324. — American OrnixHolc- 

 gists' Union Committee, Auk, xvi, 1899, 117. 



Genus CALCARIUS Bechstein. 



(Mcarliis Bechstein, Orn. Taschenb. Yi'jg. Deutschl., 1803, 130. (Type, Frin- 



gilla lapponica Linneeus. ) (See Stejneger, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., v, 1882, 32. ) 

 Plectrophanes (not of Kauji, 1829) INIeyer, Vog. Liv-u. Estl., 1815, p. xii. (Type, 



Fringilla lapponica Linnfeus. ) 

 Ci'iiiropJianes Kaup, Entw. Eur. Thierw., 1829, 158. (Type, Fringilla lapponica 



Linnreus.) 

 Lcptoplectron Reichexijach, Av. Syst. Xat., 1850, pi. 75. (Tyi>e, Emheriza picta 



Swainson. ) 



Medium- sized or ratlier small terrestrial finches, with long, pointed 

 wings, small bill, long and slender hind claw, and plumage much varied. 



Bill small (commissure shorter than middle toe without claw), acutely 

 conical, deeper than broad at base; culmen nearly straight, sometimes 

 appreciably depressed in middle portion; gonj's straight, shorter than 

 hallux without claw, its base about midway between tip and lateral 

 base of the mandible; depth of bill at base decidedly less than distance 

 from nostril to tip of maxilla. Nasal plumules indistinct, the nostrils 

 quite exposed. Wing long (about four and one-third to more than four 

 and one-half times as long as tarsus), pointed (three outermost prima- 

 ries longest, with the ninth longer than the sixth, sometimes longer 

 than the eighth); primaries exceeding secondaries by one and one- 

 quarter to one and one-half times length of tarsus; tips of secondaries 

 emarginate. Tail more than two-thirds as long as wing, double- 

 rounded or deeply emarginate {ornatus), more than half hidden by the 

 pointed upper coverts. Tarsus nearly or quite one-third as long as 

 tail, longer than middle toe with claw, its scutella near!}' obsolete; 

 lateral claws scarcel}^ or not reaching base of middle claw; hind claw 

 nearly equal to — sometimes longer than — its digit, very slender, slightly 

 arched or nearly straight. 



Coloration. — Adult males with top of head black; hindneck deep 

 rufous or butf ; rest of upper parts light brownish, broadly streaked 

 with dusky or black; outer tail-feathers with more or less of white. 

 Adult females similar above to males, but without black on head, 

 and usually without distinct rufous or buff on hindneck; lower parts 

 mainly dull whitish or butfy. 



The three species of Calcariu.^ differ consideraI)ly in details of form. 

 C. ]yict%LS is very similar to the type species, C. lajjjjonicus^ but has a 



