416 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —PASSERES— OSCINES. 



breast and along sides (excepting adult M. georgiana). No bright color anywhere, and no 

 colors in masses. The type of the genus is the familiar and beloved Song Sparrow, which the 

 authors of Citizen Bird call "Everybody's Darling" — a bird of constant characters in the 

 East, but which in the West is split into numerous geographical races, some of them look- 

 ing so different from typical melodia that they have been ctmsidered as distinct species, and 

 even placed in other genera. This differentiation affects not only color, but size, relative 

 proportion of parts, and particularly shape of bill. Nevertheless, the gradation is complete, 

 and effected by imperceptible degrees. Some Northwestern forms of great size and dark 

 colors are easily discriminated, but there are U. S. birds from Atlantic to Pacific which are 

 not readily told apart. The student should not be discouraged if a subject which has tried 

 the chiefs perplexes him ; nor must he expect to find drawn on paper hard and fast lines 

 which do not exist in nature. The curt antithetical expressions used in constructing the 

 analysis of species and varieties necessarily exaggerate the case, and are only true as indi- 

 cating the typical style of each ; plenty of specimens lie " between the lines " as written. 



Analysis of Species and leading Subspecies. 



Breast streaked, and with a transverse belt of brownish-yellow ; tall nearly equal to wings lincolni 



Breast ashy, unbelted, with few streaks, or none ; tail about equal to wings georgiana 



Breast white, or brownish-white, with numerous streaks ; tail usually longer than the wings, both rounded. Thickly 



streaked above, on sides, and across breast melodia and its subspecies 



The streaks distinct, decidedly blackisli-centred (in breeding plumage). 

 Tone of upper parts grayish-brown or reddish-gray. Streaked from head to tail. Dorsal streaks black, rufous, 



and grayish-white. Wing 2.00 ; tail under 3.00 melodia CEasternN. A.) and juddi 



Tone of upper parts gray. Streaks obsolete on rump. Dorsal streaks narrowly blackish and grayish-white, 



with little rufous Tail about 3.00. Great Basin and Rocky Mt. regions fnllax and montana 



Tone of upper parts ashy-gray. Streaks obsolete on rump. Dorsal streaks broadly black, with little rufous and 



scarcely any grayish-white. Size of the first. California heermnnni 



Tone of upper parts olive-gray. Streaks on rump and upper tail-coverts. Dorsal streaks as in the last. Very 



small. Wing 2.25 ; tail 2.50. Coast of California samiteiis 



The streaks diffuse, not black-centred nor whitish-edged. Bill slender. 

 Tone of upper parts rufous-brown. Streaks above and below dark rufous. Medium-sized; wing 2. CO ; tail under 



3.00. P.icific coast, U. S. and British Columbia ; Idaho morphna; merrilli 



Tone of upper parts olive-brown. Streaks sooty. Larger : wing and tail about 3.00. Pacific coast, British 



Columbia and Alaska rufina 



Breast plumbeous, with numerous diffuse streaks. 



Tone of upper parts dark cinereous. Streaking reddish-brown. Largest ; wing and tail 3.25 or more. 



Kadiak Island insignis 



Aleutian islands at large cinerea 



M. lin'colni. (To Thomas Lincoln, who accompanied Audubon to Labrador in 1833. Figs. 

 277, 278.) Lincoln's Song Sparrow. $ 9 : Below, white, with a broad brownish-yellow 

 belt across breast; sides of body and neck, and crissum, washed with the same; extent and 

 intensity of this buff very variable, often leaving only chin, throat, and belly purely white, but 

 a pectoral band is always evident. All the huffy parts sharfdy and thickly streaked with 

 dusky. Above, grayish-brown, with numerous sharp black-centred, brown-edged streaks. 

 Top of head ashy, with a pair of dark brown black-streaked stripes ; or, say, top of head 

 brown, streaked with black, and with median and lateral ashy stripes. Below the superciliary 

 ashy stripe is a narrow dark brown one, running from eye over ear; anriculars also bounded 

 below by an indistinct dark brown stripe, below which and behind auriculars the parts are suf- 

 fused with buff. Wings with much rufous-brown edging of all the quills; inner secondaries 

 and coverts having quite black central fields, with broad bay edging, becoming whitish toward 

 their ends. Tail brown, the featliers with pale edges, and central pair at least with dusky 

 shaft-stripes. Bill blackish, lighter below; feet brownish. Length 5.50-6.00; extent 7.75- 

 8.25; wing and tail, each, about 2.50, latter rather shorter. There is little variation in color, 

 except as above said. Fall specimens are usually most huffy. Very young : Before fall moult. 



