POOECETES GRAMINEUS, GRASS FINCH. 129 



I have seen, at any rate, it has a considerable lining of horse-hair. The 

 eggs, generally four, sometimes five, in number, are rather peculiar in 

 the heaviness of their coloring, being so thickly and uniformly mottled 

 with several shades of reddish-brown that the ground-color— a light 

 gray, with faint greenish shade — scarcely appears. Difterent speci- 

 mens, however, vary much in the amount of the mottling. In Northern 

 Dakota the eggs are generally laid the first and second weeks in June. 

 They are a trifle over three-fourths of an inch long by about three- 

 fifths in breadth. One nest I found contained two Cow-bird eggs. 



POOECETES GRAMINEUS, (Gm.) Baird. 



Bay-winged Bunting; Grass Finch. 



a. gramineus. 



Fringilla graminea, Gm., Syst. Nat. i, 1788, 922.— Bp., Syn. 1828, 108.— AUD., Orn. Biog. 



i, 1831, 473; v, 502; pi. 90.— Nutt., i, 182, 482. 

 Eniberiza graminea, Wils., Am. Orn. iv, ISll, 51, i)l. 31, f. 5. — AuD., Syn. 1839, 102. — 



AUD., B. Am. iii, 1841, 65, pi. 153.— Maxiji., J. f. O. vi, 1858, 342.— Trippe, Pr. 



Ess. Inst, vi, 1871, 116 (Minnesota, breeding abundantly in pine-barrens). 

 Fringilla (Zonotrichia) graminea, Sw. & Rich., F. B. A. ii, 1831,254 (Saskatchewan, May 



to September). 

 Zonotrichia graminea, Bp., List, 1838, 31 ; Consp. Av. i, 850, 478. — Newb., P. R. R. Rep. 



vi, 1857, 85.— Heerm., P. R. R. Rep. x, 1859, 47. 

 Pooccetes gramineus, Bd., B. N. A. 1858, 447.— Hayd., Rep. 1862, 165.— B. B. R., N. A. B. 



1, 1874, 545. 

 Pooecetes gramineus, CoxJES, Key, 1872, 136 ; and of late authors generally. 



b. confinis. 



Pooccetes gramineus var. confinis, Bd., B. N. A. 1858, 448 (in text. Pale western race). — 

 Merr., U. S. Geol. Surv. Ter. 1872, 680.— Coues, Key, 1872, 136. 



Hah. — United States from Atlantic to Pacific ; north to the Saskatchewan at least. 

 Breeds from Maryland to corresponding latitudes northward. AViuters in countless 

 multitudes in the Southern States. The pale var. confinis from the Middle Province. 



List of specimens. 



Lieutenant Warren's Exjyedition.— 4^07-08, 4505, Yellowstone River; 4506, 4504, Fort 

 Union ; 8943-44, Black Hills ; 8942, 8945, 8947, South Fork. 



Later Expeditions. — 54311, 59887, 60398-406; 60744-59, various Wyoming localities; 

 61674-7, Utah ; 61777-8, Idaho ; 62308-9, Wyoming. (All var. confinis.) 



Dr. Hayden's collections show that this species is abundant in the 

 Missouri region, as it is in all suitable localities elsewhere in the United 

 States. xVUen found it common at Denver, as well as along the western 

 edge of the plains, and occasionally thence upward to above timber line 

 on the Snowy Range. I have met with it abundantly in all parts of the 

 West where I have been. 



Mr. Trippe kindly furnishes the following notes from Idaho Springs, 

 Colorado: '-The Bay-winged Bunting is very abundant, breeding from 

 the plains u]) to timber-line, though not numerous above 9,000 feet. It 

 arrives at Idaho Springs early in May, and has become very common 

 by the 20th, extending up to timber-line wherever it can find congenial 

 haunts. It freciuents the oi)en valleys of the larger streams and tlie 

 grassy hill-sides, where its manners are much as in the East. It has 

 quite a variety of songs; one almost precisely like that of the Eastern 

 bird; another so difierent that the two would scarcely be suppo.sed to 

 conu' from the same author — of these the latter is by far the most com- 

 mon — and variations between them, diQerent individuals varying greatly 

 in their songs. 

 9 



