342 



SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSERES — OSCINES. 



Inner secondaries »io< enlarged ; wing decidedly longer than tail. 



Edge of wing and loral spot 2/e//o?/;; breast butt"; wing under 2.50. (Eastern.) 



Cotumiculus 77 

 With yellow on breast, edge of wing, over eye; black tbroat-patch or slrijies. 



(Eastern.) Splsa 88 



No yellow ; bead striped with black, white, and chestnut ; tail black, white-tipped. 



(Western.) Chondestes 85 



No yellow ; wings w/tite-6arrerf; throat black, cf. (Imported.) J'asser 64 



Inner secondaries not enlarged ; wing not, or not decidedly, longer than tail. 



Tail-feathers — very acute ; bill— very slender. (Eastern, chiefly maritime. ) 



Ammodramus 78 



— very stout. (Eastern, interior.) . .Coturniculus 77 

 — not acute ; tail— forked. Length 6.00 or less; no yellow on wing. 



(N. Am.) S2nzella 83 



— rounded — black ; edge of wing yellowish . ( West- 



fin.) Amphlspiza 81 



— not black. — Streaked below, or crown 

 chestnut. (N. Am ) . . Melosjnza 79 

 —not streaked below. (S. 

 and W. U. S.) . Peucma 80 

 or (^f. Am.) Zmwtrichia 84 



*** The commonest " sparrows " of Eastern U. S., which the student will be most likely to find first, belong 

 to the genera Passer, Spizella, Melospiza, Zonotrichia, Passerella, Passerculus, Poacetes, Coturniculus (tliese 

 anywhere); Ammodramus (marshes only); common but more distinguished fringillines are Carpodacus, Astra- 

 galinus, Chrysomitris, Passerina, Spiza, Pipilo, and Cardinalis. Winter visitors, in flocks, are Loxia, Pinicola, 

 Plectrophanes, Centrophanes, JEgiothus, and Junco. 



61. HESPEROPHO'NA. (Gr. ta-iripa, Hesperus, place of sunset; (^avri, voice.) American 

 Hawfinches. Bill enormously large, vaulted, nearly as wide as high at base ; culmen nearly 

 straight to the decurved end ; commissure curved without obvious angulation ; gonys very long, 



and mandibular rami short, not reaching back of 

 base of upper mandible ; mandibles of equal thick- 

 ness, lower not so deep as upper ; lateral outlines of 

 bill converging straight to tip. Nasal fossae ex- 

 .^-~~%~;psm^^'y^y^^^^m^^^m tremely short and broad ; nostrils slightly overhung 



\/^jjm^^^M^^^m hy antrorse plumulse. Wings long, pointed, folding 



beyond middle of tail, pointed by first two primaries, 

 the rest rapidly graduated ; no peculiar shape of 

 inner primaries or outer secondaries. Tail rather 

 short, emarginate, with long coverts, the under 

 reaching nearly to the forking. Feet small and 

 weak ; tarsus shorter than middle toe without 

 claw ; lateral toes of about equal lengths, their claws 

 reaching only to base of middle claw. Coloration 

 Fig. 206. - Evening Grosbeak, reduced. black, white, and yellow. Sexes dissimilar. Little 

 (Sheppard del. Nichols sc.) different from Old World Coccothraustes, excepting 



coloration and sim];)licity of wing-quills. 

 189. H. vesperti'na. (Lat. vespertina, of Hesperus. Fig. 206.) Evening Grosbeak. Adult 

 ^ : General color sordid yellow, overlaid wnth a sooty-olive shade, deepest on fore parts, quite 

 black on crown, clearest below behind. Forehead and line over eye, scapulars, and rump, 

 yellow. Wings and tail black ; several inner secondaries and inner half of the greater coverts 

 white ; lining of wings black and yellow. A narrow black line around base of upper man- 

 dible ; tibiae black. Bill greenish -yellow ; feet apparently dusky flesh-color. Length 

 7.50-8.50 ; wing 4.00-4.50 ; tail 2.50-3.00 ; bill 0.75 long, 0.67 deep, 0.60 broad. 9 : 

 Brownish-ash, paler below, whitening on belly, irregularly patched or mixed with yellowish; 

 white of wings imperfect, or tinged with yellow ; primaries, which are quite black in ^, with 



