GSQ FKINGtLLTD^!. 



Ammodromns caudacutus nelsoni, Ridyw. Froc. U.S. Nat. Mus. iii. 



p. 217 (1881) ; Brewster, Auk, ii. p. 216 (1885) ; Fisher, t. c. 



p. 306 ; Goss, Auk, iii. p. 115 (1886) ; Hensh. t. c. p. 486 ; A. O. 



U. Check-l. N Amer. B. p. 269 (1886). 

 Ammodronius caudacutus siibvirgatus, Diviyht, Auk, iv. p. 233 



(1887). 



Adult male in breeding-plumage. General colour above dark ashy 

 brown, the mantle-feathers edged with dull white and centred with 

 black ; lower back and rump uniform ; lesser wing-coverts ashy 

 brown, washed with olive-yellow ; median and greater coverts dusky 

 brown or blackish, with paler brown margins ; bastard-wing, pri- 

 mary-coverts, and quills dusky brown, edged with ashy brown, 

 slightly rufescent on the inner secondaries and inner greater coverts ; 

 ujjper tail-coverts like the back ; tail-feathers dusky brown, edged 

 with ashy brown ; crown of head and hind neck dull ashy brown, 

 washed with warmer brown, and blackish along the sides of the 

 crown ; lores, eyelid, and a broad eyebrow pale orange-rufous ; ear- 

 coverts and feathers below the eye dull ashy ; cheeks pale orange- 

 rufous, followed by a narrow malar line of black ; throat and under 

 surface of body dull white, the fore neck and breast streaked with 

 blackish ; lower breast and abdomen uniform ; sides of body and flanks 

 dull brown, washed with sandy buff, and broadly streaked with black ; 

 thighs brown ; under tail-coverts isabelline buff ; under wing-coverts 

 and axillaries dull whitish, the edge of the wing yellow ; quills 

 below dusky, ashy along the inner edge : " bill brownish black 

 above, sides of upper mandible yellow ; lower mandible light bluish 

 grey ; iris hazel ; feet pale brown " (Audubon). Total length 4 - 8 

 inches, culmen 05, wing 2*15, tail 1*9, tarsus 075. 



Young. Everywhere much more tawny than the adult, from which 

 it is quite different in aspect. General colour above clear brown : 

 the feathers of the mantle and back narrowly streaked with black 

 and pale sandy buff on their margins ; hind neck uniform brown ; 

 wing-coverts and quills as in the adults, but with more distinct pale 

 margins, which are conspicuously sandy buff on the coverts and on 

 the inner secondaries ; crown of head blackish, the feathers slightly 

 edged with sandy buff, more distinctly on the centre of the crown, 

 where there is a tolerably defined pale streak ; a distinct eyebrow of 

 sandy buff ; ear-coverts pale sandy buff, dusky blackish along the 

 upper margin and behind, a narrow line of black separating the ear- 

 coverts from the cheeks ; cheeks and under surface of body uniform 

 sandy buff, excepting for a few narrow shaft-lines of black on the 

 sides of the fore neck and flanks, a little broader on the sides of the 

 upper breast. 



The series of Shai'p-tailed Finches in the Museum is evidently 

 incomplete, so that an exact comparison of the three races now 

 recognized by American ornithologists has been impossible. To 

 judge of the merits of these distinctions, it would be necessary to 

 have a much fuller series of all of them procured at all seasons than 

 is at rny disposal at present. Mr. D wight (I. c.) makes out a very 

 good case for the recognition of three races ; but he admits great 



