FRINGILLID.E: FINCHES, BUNTINGS, SPARROWS. 441 



patch. Back nearly as in coronata, streaked with dusky and reddish-brown. Bill coral-red ; 

 toes dark ; tarsi pale. No yellow anywhere. Very large : Length 7.00-7.75; extent 10.75- 

 11.25; wing 3.25-3.50 ; tail 3.40-3.G0 ; bill 0.45; tarsus 1.00; middle toe and claw rather less. 

 9 similar, but with much less black on head and throat, the hood being restricted or imperfect ; 

 but its outline usually traceable. ,^ 9 , in fall : Bill light reddish-brown, usually obscured 

 on ridge and at tip, and paler at base below; feet flesh -colored, obscured on toes; eyes brown. 

 Crown grayish-black, every feather with a distinct, narrow, pale gray edge all around, producing 

 a peculiar effect ; this area bounded with a light ochrey-brown superciliary and frontal line. 

 Sides of head like the superciliary, but auricular patch rather darker grayish-brown, and loral 

 region obscurely whitish. Chin pure white, bounded on each side by a sharp maxillary line of 

 blackish, with a rusty-red tinge. On lower throat, a large, diffuse and partially discontinuous 

 blotch of this same blackish-red, cutting off white chin from white of rest of under parts, con- 

 necting with maxillary streaks, and stretching along sides of neck and breast in a series of rich 

 dusky-chestnut streaks. Ou middle of breast the blotch generally runs out into the white in a 

 sharp point, but its size and shape vary interminably. The markings here described are all 

 included in the jet-black hood and breast-plate of the perfect spring dress; and between the 

 two extremes every intermediate condition may be observed at various seasons. The rest of 

 the plumage does not differ very materially from that of the adult ^ in summer. This is the 

 largest of our Sparrows ; a bird of imposing appearance — for a Sparrow ! Interior U. S. and 

 British Provinces, especially the valley of the Mississippi, Lower Missouri, and Red Eiver of 

 the North; E. to Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa, and even Illinois; S. to Texas; accidental in 

 Oregon and British Columbia. It is abundant in the line of its migration, as in Kansas, Ne- 

 braska, Iowa, Dakota, etc., but its breeding resorts are not well made out — probably Mani- 

 toba, Assiniboia, N. to Hudson Bay. I found it in Dakota at 49° coining early in September 

 from the North. 



CHONDES'TES. (Gr. x"''V°f> chondros, cartilage ; also grain, seeds ; ibfarris, edesies, an 

 eater; badly formed.) Lark Sparrows. Framed for a single species, with long pointed 

 wings, exceeding long rounded tail ; point of wing formed by 2d and 3d primaries, but 1st and 

 4tli scarcely shorter ; rest rapidly graduated. Tarsus about equal to middle toe and claw ; 

 lateral toes short, tips of claws not reaching base of middle claw. Bill swollen-conic, with 

 culmen sliglitly convex, commissure little angulated. Species large, for a Sparrow, streaked 

 above, white behjw, head and tail parti-colored. 



C. gram'inacus. (Gr. ypafijiiKos, (jrammicos, marked with a ypafifxa, (jrainma, a line, word ; 

 badly selected to indicate the stripes of the head, and badly 

 spelled. Fig. 297.) Lark Sparrow. Lark Finch. 

 Adult $ 9 : Head variegated with chestnut, black, and 

 white ; crown chestnut, blackening on forehead, divided by 

 a median stripe, and bounded by superciliary stripes, of 

 white ; a black line through eye, and another below eye, 

 ench)sing a white streak under eye and chestnut auriculars; 

 next, a sharp black maxillary stripe not quite reaching bill, 

 cutting off a white stripe from vi'hite chin and throat. A 

 black blotch on middle of breast. Under parts white, faintly 

 sliaded with grayish-brown ; upper parts grayish-brown ; 

 middle of back with fine black streaks. Tail very long, its Fio. 207. -Lark Sparrow, nat. size, 



c.ntral feathers like back, the rest jet-black, broadly tipped ^^^- ""*• ^"^^ ^- ^'^ 

 with pure wliite in diminishing amount from the lateral pair inward, and outer web of outer 

 pair entirely white. Length (i.OOHi. 75 ; wing 3.20-3.50, jiointed; tail 3.00 or less, rounded. 

 Very young: Crown, back, and nearly all under parts streaked with dusky; no chestnut ou 

 head, nor are the black stripes firm ; but witli the first moult the peculiar pattern of the head- 



