FRINGILLID^ — THE FINCHES — CIIONDESTES. 193 



Chondestes grammaca, Sat, 



THE LARK FINCH. 



Fringilla rjrammam, S.VT, Long's Expcd. E. Jits. I. 1,«2.3, 139. — Chondestes grwnmma, BoN.v- 

 PAKTE, List, 18.38. — B.^iRD, P. R. Rep. IX. BirJs, 45(;. — Heermank, X. vi. 48.— 

 Cooper and Sucklet, XII. iii. Zool. of W. T. 200. — Emberiza orammaca, Audubon, 

 Birds Amcr. III. I84I, 63 ; pi. 158. 



Chondestes strii/atiis, SwAiNSON, Pliilo.s. Mag. I. 1827, 43.5. 



Sp. Cii.\R. Hood chestnut, tiniioil with black towards the forehead, with a median and 

 a superciliary stripe of dirty whitish. Rest of upper parts pale grayish-brown, the inter- 

 scapidar region streaked with dark brown. Beneath white, a roinid spot on the upper 

 part of the breast, a maxillary stripe, and a short line from the bill to the eye, continued 



faintly behind it, lilaek. A white crescent tmdcr the eye, bordered below by black, and 

 behind by chestnut. Tail fL'athers dark brown, tipped Ijroadly with white. Length, 7.00 ; 

 extent, 11.50 ; wing, 3.75. Iris brown; bill horn-lirown, bluish below ; feet whitish. 



Hab. From Wisconsin and the prairies of Illinois to the Pacific Coast ; south to Texas 

 and Mexico. 



I did not observe this bird in the Colorado Valley, though one was 

 obtained at Fort Yuma during the Mexican Boundary Survey, on the 30th 

 of December ; and, as I found large flocks of them in the valleys of San 

 Diego County in February, I have no doubt that they winter in the 

 southern part of the State, though not as far north as San Francisco. They 

 reach the Columbia Eiver east of the Cascade Mountains early in May, and 

 breed in this State from near San Diego northward in the sheltered valleys, 

 and at Santa Barbara. I have not found their nests in this State, but have 

 met with many of them from Missouri west, through Kansas and Ne- 

 braska, in ^lay and June. They build on the ground, constructing their 

 nests chiefly of grass ; the eggs are white, with scattered hair lines and 

 spots of brown near the large end, if I remember rightly. 

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