422 



S YS TEMA TIC S YNOPSIS. — PA S SERES — OSCIXES. 



M. insig'nis. (Lat 

 a sign, mark, token. 



grayer, the superciliary stripe, most of auriculars, sides of neck, and edges of interscapulars 

 being quite gray, in contrast with the brown markings; streaks below "seal-brown;" ground 

 color of flanks "olive-grayish." Wing 3.00; tail 2.85; culmen 0.56; depth of bill at base 

 0.30; tarsus 0.95. Range ascribed to Alaska from Cook's Inlet to Cross Sound, and south- 

 ward in winter. 31. f. caurina Eidgw. Auk, Jan. 1899, p. 36; M. m. caurinn Oberh. 

 Auk, Apr. ]899, p. 183. 



nsignis, signal, notable, well marked, as this species is ; in, and signum, 

 Fig. 283.) Bischoff's Song Sparrow. Kadiak Song Sparrow. 

 Specific characters receding from those of 

 rufina and approaching those oi cinerea; col- 

 oration most like that of rufina, size nearly 

 that of cinerea. Wing 3.20; tail 3.10; tar- 

 sus 1.00; bill 0.55. Eggs 0.89 X 0.65. An 

 isolated species only known from Kadiak, etc., 

 Alaska. Baird, Trans. Chicago Acad. Sci. 

 i, 1869, p. 319, pi. 29, fig. 1. M. meloclia 

 insignis Coues, Key, orig. ed. 1872, p. 140: 

 in later eds. wrongly combined with cinerea 

 under the name of the latter, as it also is in 

 A. O. U. List, 1st ed. 1886 ; see especially 

 Richmond, Auk, Apr. 1895, pp. 144-150, 

 for best account of this species and the next. 

 It is No. 58] . 1 of A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 1895, 

 p. 243. 



M. cine'rea. (Lat. cinerea, ashy, ash-col- 

 ored; cinis, e:en. cineris, ashes. Fie. 284.) 



Fio 283. -Kadiak Song Sparrow. (L. A. Fuertes.) CiNEREOUS ^SONG SpARROW. ALEUTIAN 



Song Sparrow (called also " Kadiak Song Sparrow " in 2d-4th eds. of Key). A distinct 

 species, peculiar in size, shape, and color. Above, brownish-slate color, more rufous on 

 wings; the streaking broad and blended, very dark. Below, plumbeous-whitish, shaded with 

 brown on sides ; the streaks broad, dif- 

 fuse, and dark. Spring and fall plu- 

 mages diflFer much, but the bird may 

 always be recognized by its great size 

 and long slender bill. Length about 

 7.50 ; wing 3.30 ; tail 3.50 ; tarsus 1.10 ; 

 bill 0.65, its depth at base 0.30. Fort 

 Kenai, Alaska; Aleutian Islands (not 

 Kadiak, however). FringiUa cinerea 

 Gm. S. N. i, 1788, p. 922; Melospiza 

 cinerea Finsch, Abhandl. Nat. Verein, 

 Bremen, iii, 1872, p. 20. Not in orig. 

 ed. of Key, and M. cinerea of Key, 2d- 

 4th eds. p. 372, and of Ridgw. Man. 

 1887, p. 432, includes both this species 

 and M. insignis. It is No. 582 of 

 A. O. U. List, 2d ed. 1895, p. 243, 

 where " Pribilof Islands " are wrongly 

 included in its ascribed habitat. 

 PEUC^'A. (Gr. TTfVKr], pence, a pine ; not well applied except to P. eestivalis.) Summer 



Fio. 284. — Aleutian Song Sparro 



