FRINGILLID.E: FINCHES, BUNTINGS, SPARROWS. 447 



feathers; wing-coverts chestnut. An elegant species, of trim form, tasteful colors, and very 

 smooth plumage, abundant in fertile portions of the Eastern U. S. ; N. to Massachusetts ; W. 

 to Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and S. W. even to Arizona; rather southerly, scarcely reach- 

 ing the N. border of the U. S. anywhere, except in the region of the Great Lakes, where it 

 extends into southern Ontario ; winters wholly extralimital, in Central and even South Amer- 

 ica; breeds throughout its U. S. range. The local distribution of the birds within their gen- 

 eral range is irregular, apparently fortuitous, and seems to have changed of late years, the 

 species being rare E. of the Alleghanies, and absent from many Atlantic localities where it 

 used to be common, as in the District of Columbia, for example. Not a good vocalist ; the 

 simple ditty sounds like chip-chip-chee, chee, chee. Nest on the ground, or in a low bush ; eggs 

 4-.5, normally plain greenish-white, rarely speckled ; 0.80 X 0.65. 



S. town'sendi. (To J. K. Townsend.) Townsend's Bunting. " Upper parts, head and 

 neck all round, sides of body and fore part of breast, slate-blue ; back and upper surface of wings 

 tinged with yellowish-brown; interscapulars streaked with black ; superciliary and maxillary 

 line, chin and throat and central line of under parts from breast to crissum, white ; edge of 

 wing, and gloss on breast and middle of belly, yellow; a black spotted line from lower corner 

 of lower mandible down tlie side of the throat, connecting with a crescent of streaks in the 

 upper edge of the slate portion of the breast.'' Chester Co., Pennsylvania, J. K. Townsend, 

 May 11, J 833; one specimen known, a standing puzzle to ornithologists, in the uncertainty 

 whether it is a " good species," or merely an abnormal plumage of the last, or a hybrid, pos- 

 sibly of S. americana 9 X (? Guiraca ccerulea. While it is not improbable that the type 

 came from an egg laid by S. americana, even such immediate ancestry would not forbid recog- 

 nition of " specific characters ; " the solitary bird having been killed, it represents a species 

 which died at its birth. The type is extant in the U. S. National Museum. An unfinished 

 sketch of this specimen, diflferent from Audubon's published plate, forms the frontispiece of 

 Audubon and his Journals, Vol. ii. 1897. 



ZAMELO'DIA. (Gr. fa, za, much, very; /neXwSi'a, melodia, melody. Fig. 303.) Song 

 Grosbeaks. Bill extremely heavy ; lower mandible as deep as upper or deeper ; commis- 

 sural angle strong, for in advance of feathered base of bill ; 

 rictus overhung with a few long stiff bristles. Wing with 

 outer 4 primaries abruptly longer than 5th. Tail shorter 

 than wing, even or scarcely rounded. Feet short and stout. 

 P^inbracing two large species, of beautiful and striking colors, 

 the sexes disshuilar. ^ black and white, with carmine-red 

 or orange-brown; 9 otherwise, but with lining of wings 

 yellow. Brilliant songsters ; nest in trees and bushes ; eggs 

 spotted. (Zamelodia Coues, 1880, and of 2d-4th eds. of the 

 Key, 1884-90, must stand as against Hahia Reich. 1850, 

 and of 1st and 2d eds. of the A. 0. U. List, 1886-95; for Via. m.- mn of Zamelodia indori- 



,. ^T 1 . . , J , , TT 7 ■ !• r^ ■ ^atn, p ciana, n&t. Bize. (Ad. nat. del. E. C.) 



this Hnfnn is antedated by Hama or Cuvier, 1849. tor a 



genus of South American Tanagers (Saltator Vieill.). Compare Stej. Auk, Oct. 1884, 

 p. :^6, with Coues, Auk, Jan. 1897, p. 39. (The introduction of Ha bin into Nortii Ameri- 

 can ornithology for our Song Grosbeaks was rectified by the A. 0. U. Committee in 8th Suppl. 

 List, Auk, Jan. 1897, p. 130.) 



Analysis o/ Species. 



<f black and white, vrith carmine-red on breast and under wings. 9 with lining of wings saffron-vellow. Easteni 



liitioiieiana 

 {f black and white, with orange-brown on breast : (f $ with lining of wings and belly yellow. Western 



meliniocephala 



