FRINGILLIDffi — THE FINCHES. 241 



"All abundant winter resident. Arrives in flocks, the fii-st of 

 November, and remains until about the middle of March. The 5th 

 of March, 1875, I saw a flock of these birds in a tree m Chicago. 

 The males were chanting a very low and somewhat broken, but very 

 pleasant, song, bearing considei'able resemblance to that of Spizclla 

 monticola. Tliis and the following species, [Calcarius laiyponicus], 

 as weU as other winter residents, appear a week or more earlier in 

 the fall, and depart later in the spring, in the vicinity of the lake, 

 than in any other parts of the State in the same latitude." 



The Snow Bunting breeds throughout the Arctic regions of both 

 continents, the National Museum possessmg nests from the most 

 northern point of Alaska (Point Barrow) and from Labrador, as 

 well as from various intermediate localities. 



Genus CALCARIUS Bechstein. 



Calcarius Bechst. Orn. Taseh. Deutsch. 1803, 130. Type, Fi-ingiUa lapponica Linn. 



Gen. Chae. Bill small, the gonys very short, with its angle opposite the middle ot 

 the culmen; maxilla egual to or exceeding the mandible in depth, the depth ot the bill 

 not exceeding the length of the gonys. Middle toe, with claw, shorter than tarsus, the 

 middle claw falling short ot that ot the hallux. Tail longer than the distance from the 

 carpal joint to the tips ot the tertials (except in C. ornatus). 



The three species of this genus differ considerably in the details 

 of form, but it is probable that these differences are of no more 

 than specific value. Thus C. ornatus differs from both C. 'pictus 

 and C. lapponicus in having the tail much shorter than the distance 

 from the carpal joint of the wing to the end of the tertials, in 

 wliich respect it agrees with Rhynchophanes mccownii, but this is 

 apparently owing more to the greater development of the second- 

 aries than to a really reduced length of the tail. In the form of 

 the bill, however, it agrees very closely with C. pictus, which, as 

 does also that of C. ornatus, differs from that of C. lapponicus in 

 being more slender and pointed. 



The species may be distmguished by the following characters : 



Common Chaeactebs. Above brown, spotted with black. Male with the crown and 

 other parts of the head black. 



A. Outer tail-feathers dusky at the base. 



1. C. lapponicns. Lower parts dull whitish. Adult male in snmmer: Head and jugu- 

 lum black, with a broad white supra-auricular stripe; nape bright chestnut-rufous; 

 lesser wing-coverts grayish; middle coverts dusky. In whiter: Similar, but 

 throat whitish, jugular patch badly defined, head much tinged with ochraeeous, 

 and rufous of nape obscured by grayish. Adult female in summer: Head mostly 

 dull buffy, the crown with two broad lateral stripes of broad dusky streaks, the 



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