brown ; sides darker ; lores, chin, and throat dirty white ; belly, flanks, thighs, and 

 under tail-coverts white ; the white patches on the inner webs of rectrices very small ; 

 under surface of wing and axillaries silvery -grey ; bill and feet yellowish-brown : 

 length 5-7, wing 2-85, tail 2-35, tars. 0-85, culm. 0-5. 



Observ. From a series of thirty specimens of both sexes in my own collection, I am enabled 

 to form a continuous series of phases in the plumage of this beautiful bird. The very 

 old males become pure slaty-grey on the back, throat, and breast, with black centres to 

 the feathers of the mantle and scapulars ; some have blackish tips to the feathers of the 

 nape and hind neck, while others have a patch of bufEsh-red, faintly striated with brown 

 on the nape, the inner secondaries being broadly edged with reddish-brown. The young 

 males are greatly varied with slaty -grey, with the whole of the upper parts striated with 

 dark brown. The lesser wing-coverts of the adult male, female, and young are remark- 

 able for their uniform slaty-grey. 



The Alaudine Finch was first described by F. H. von Kittlitz in his 

 ' Kupfertafeln zur Naturgeschichte der Vogel,' in 1832, under the name 

 of Fringilla alaudina ; in 183-i Meyen redescribed it under the name of 

 Emberiza guttata, having a female or immature specimen for his type. Mr. 

 G. Gray in 1844 placed the species under the genus Euspiza ; C. Gay in 

 his ' Fauna Chilena,' 1847, selected Ch/orospka for the generic term. It 

 was not until 1850 that Bonaparte in his ' Con.spectus Generum Avium ' 

 restored it to the genus Phrygihis, and in 1872 Sundevall created a new 

 generic appellation {Corydot^piza) for it. 



This beautiful delicate grey bird is an inhabitant of the mountainous 

 regions of Chili, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador ; and from the number of 

 localities in which it has been procured, and the various seasons of its capture, 

 I was led to suppose that it migrated into the two latter places. However, 

 I have come to the conclusion that it is a permanent resident throughout the 

 year. The climate of these countries at the altitudes in which it is found 

 varies but little ; probably the great snowstorms during the winter season 

 may drive it down from the higher ranges of the Andes to the wai'mer 

 and more sheltered valleys and plains of the coast. 



In Chili, however, it appears to be more abundant than in any other 

 part of the western slopes of the Cordillera. M. A. D'Orbigny collected 

 his specimens at Sicasica in Bolivia. Mr. Charles Darwin " obtained it in 

 the neighbourhood of Valparaiso." Mr. Bridges says : " This little bird 

 makes its appearance in the summer months ; inhabits corn-fields ; builds its 

 nest on the ground, and lays from four to five whitish eggti with brown 



