578 



FRINGILLIDiE. 



Bill wax-yellow, with dusky tip to the maxilla. Wing 4-60, 

 tail 3-15, culmen 0-40, tarsus 0-95, middle toe 0-60. (Ridg- 

 way.) 



Adult female in spring. General colour white, the pileum and 

 auriculars tinged with rusty, the nape and hack faintly washed with 

 pale huff yellowish, and back very narrowly streaked with dusky, 

 but these narrow streaks rapidly widening toward the roots of the 

 feathers, so as to form the predominating colour of the concealed 

 portion ; scapulars more strongly tinged with ochraceous, and with 

 still broader concealed dusky acuminate spots, but without distinct 

 streaks on the surface. Tertials with the central part of the exposed 

 portion blackish, the very broad marginal part light dull ochraceous, 

 becoming nearly white at the tips of the feathers ; alulae dull black, 

 bordered with white : primary-coverts similar, but greater portions 

 of inner webs white ; longer primaries chiefly dusky greyish, dis- 

 tinctly bordered with white and with basal half or more of inner 

 webs wholly white ; on the shorter primaries this dusky rapidly 

 decreasing in extent until on the innermost quill there is a mere 

 trace near the tip of the outer web. Four middle rectrices brownish 

 dusky, bordered with white ; rest of the tail white, but all the 

 feathers with more or less of a dusky streak near end of the outer 

 web. Bill brownish wax-yellow, the culmen dusky ; feet brownish 

 black. Wing 4-25, tail 2-00, culmen 0-45, tarsus 0-85, middle toe 

 0-60. (Rklgwcuj.) 



Adult female in winter. Similar to the spring plumage as de- 

 scribed above, but upper parts much more strongly washed with 

 rusty, this deepest on the pileum and auriculars, but also pervading 

 the nape, whole back, and scapulars, and, but less uniformly, the 

 rump ; an interrupted or broken jugular collar of rusty touches or 

 cloudings; broad margins of the tertials deep cinnamon. Bill paler 

 and purer wax-yellow, without black on culmen ; feet deep black. 

 Wing 4-25, tail 2-90, culmen 0-40, tarsus 0-87, middle toe 0-58. 



The fully adult male may be at once distinguished from that of 

 P. nivalis by the total absence of black except on the terminal third 

 (or less) of the primaries and near the ends of the middle rectrices. 

 In P. nivalis the primaries are black nearly to the base, the alulae, 

 primary-coverts, and tertials also black (though bordered with white), 

 the dorsal region mainly black (wholly black in summer), and the 

 six middle rectrices black to the base. The rusty wash is also much 

 paler in the new form. In its summer plumage, except the black 

 quill-tips, it would evidently be snow-white, the bill black instead of 

 yellow. The females are distinguished from those of P. nivalis by 

 their much paler coloration, with the dark markings far more 

 restricted, and the rusty wash of the winter dress much less distinct. 

 All of the four specimens of this sex have the back white, more or 

 less tinged or stained with yellowish (more rusty on the scapulars), 

 and narrowly streaked with black, although these streaks are nearly 

 obsolete in one specimen. (Ridgway, I. c.) 

 Hub. Alaska. 



