BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 399 



Genus OREOSPIZA RidgNA^ay. 



Chlorura (not (7(/o*-»/7(.s Swainson) Sclater. Cat. Am. Birds, Aug. 17, 1861, 117. 



(Type, Fringilki chlorimi Audubon.) 

 Oreospiza Ridgway, Man. -X. Am. Birdy, 2d ed., 1896, 439. (Type, FrhigiUa 



chlorura Audubon. ) 



Medium-sized terrestrial Fring-illidfe, with rather long and pointed 

 wing-s, rather long rounded tail (equal to or exceeding wing), the col- 

 oration greenish above (especially on wings ancl tail), crown rufous, 

 throat (and other head-markings) and alxlomen white, chest and sides 

 gra3^ (Intermediate, structurally, between PlpUo and Zonotrlchln.) 



Bill small (exposed culmen less than half as long a.^ tarsus), conical 

 (basal depth about equal to length of gonys, yery mu<h greater than 

 basal width); culmen slightly convex terminally and basally. straight 

 or faintly depressed between; gonys faintly convex, shorter than 

 length of maxilla from nostril; maxillary tomium slightly concave ter 

 minally, without subterminai notch, then straight to the slight l)asal 

 deflection, the latter partly concealed by rictal feathers; mandibular 

 tomium faintly convex terminally, then straight/to the faintly toothed 

 subbasal angle. Nostril wedge-shaped (apex forward), exposed, with 

 broad superior scale or horn}^ valve. Rictal bristles minute, scarcely 

 obvious. Wing rather long (more than three times as long as the 

 rather long tarsus), rather pointed (eighth to sixth primaries longest, 

 ninth equal to or but little shorter than fourth); primaries exceeding 

 secondaries by nearly two-thirds the length of the tarsus. Tail Ioup- 

 (about equal to or exceeding wing), rounded. Tarsus long (nearly 

 one-third as long as wing), its scutella obsolete or very indistinct on 

 outer side; middle toe with claw nearly equal to tarsus; inner claw 

 reaching decidedly, the outer slightly, beyond base of middle claw; 

 hallux much shorter than lateral toes, its claw longer than the digit. 



Coloration. — Adult plain olive-green above, with rufous pileum; 

 throat-patch, malar stripe, supra-loral spot, and belly white; chest 

 ash gray. 



Range. — Mountain districts of Western United States and northern 

 Mexico. (Monotypic.) 



Oreospiza is intermediate between Pipilo and Zonotrichia^ though 

 much nearer the former, with which it' agrees in its stout feet with 

 long claws, rounded tail, and form of bill. Its coloration, too, is not 

 so abnormal for Pi pi Jo as has been supposed, every feature of color — 

 rufous cap, white throat, yellow carpal edge, and olive-green upper 

 parts — being shared b}' some species of that genus, though by none in 

 the same combination. The wing, however, is very difi'erent from 

 that of Pipilo^ being quite the same in the relative length of the pri- 

 maries as that of Zonotrichia^ that of Z. albicolUs being even more 

 rounded. 



