BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 229 



Genus PLAGIOSPIZA Ridgway. 



Phuiiofipha Ridgway, Auk, xv, .Tuly, 1898 (i^ib. May 14, 1898), 224. (Type 

 A.'mopJi ila supercllin.m i^wAinf^on.) 



Stoutl}- built terrestrial Fringillidffi, with short truncated wing- (less 

 than three times as long- as tarsus), short graduated tail with narrow 

 rectrices, and plumage conspicuousl}^ striped above. 



Bill stout (depth through base exceeding gon^vs or length of maxilla 

 from nostril), the exposed culmen a little m.ore than half as long as 

 tarsus; culmen slightly convex at tip and base, straight, or slightly 

 depressed in the middle portion; gonys straight, with rather promi- 

 nent basal angle; maxillary tomium faintly concave terminally and 

 subbasally, faintly convex between, the slight basal deflection begin- 

 ning beneath posterior end of nostril. Nostrils small, horizon1:al, 

 poinied anteriorly, with broad overhanging scale. Wing very short 

 (only about two and three-fourths times as long as tarsus); eighth to 

 fifth quills equal and longest, the ninth and fourth but little .Shorter. 



! tW former being decidedly longer than the third and very much longer 

 than the secondaries: primaries exceeding secondaries by more than 

 length of maxilla from nostril, but less than length of culmen; tertials 

 longer than secondaries, reaching nearly to tip of longest primaries. 

 Tail much shorter than wing, graduated for about the length of the 

 bill from nostril, the rectrices very narrow but rounded at tTps. Tar- 

 sus rather short (less than twice as long as exposed culmen). very 



: slightly exceeding middle toe with claw, rather stout, its scutella dis- 

 tinct: lateral claws falling a little short of base of middle claw: hallux 



j about equal to middle toe, its claw nearly as long as the digit. 



Colomtwn.— Very conspicuously streaked everywhere above, plain 

 light brownish gray beneath (nearly white on chin, upper throat, and 



■belly), the under tail-coverts with dusky streaks; a broad and conspic- 



' nous dusky band on sides of head, with a conspicuous superciliary 

 stripe of brownish white or bufly above it. 



j i?«/;^r.— Highlands of Mexico. (Monotypic.) 



PLAGIOSPIZA SUPERCILIOSA (Swainson). 

 STRIPED SPARROW. 



ArluJU ibexes al /^f^.—Fileum chestnut, streaked with black and with 

 |a more or less distinct median stripe of pale buflv and bla<-k streaks; 

 back and scapulars Tight lu'own, broadly and sharply streaked with 

 ^black; rectrices blackish, edged with light brown or l)rownish gray 

 ,and more or less tipped with a paler tint of the same, especially on 

 outermost rectrices, the middle pair with the light brown or graVish 

 edgnigs very broad and the black median stripe with serrated edgings, 



