BIRDS — FBINGILLIDAE POOC^ITES GRAMINEUS. 



447 



List of specimens. 



POOC^ETES, Baird. 



Ch. — Bill ratlier large; upper outline Blighlly decurved towards the end, lower straight; commissure shglitly concave. 

 Tarsus about equal to the middle toe ; outer toe a little longer than tlio inner, its claw reaching to the concealed base of the 

 middle claw ; hind toe reaching to the middle of the middle claw. Wings unusually long, reaching to the middle of the tail as 

 far as the coverts, and pointed ; the primaries considerably longer than the secondaries, which are not much surpassed by the 

 tertiaries; second and third quills longest ; first little shorter, about equal to the fourth, shorter than the tail ; the outer feathers 

 scarcely shorter ; the feathers rathers stiff ; each one acuminate and sharply pointed ; the feathers broad nearly to the end when 

 they aie obliquely truncate. Streaked with brown above everywhere ; beneath, on the breast and sides. The lateral tail 

 feather is white. 



The essential cliaracter of the genus consists in the long and pointed wings, longer than the 

 tail and without long tertials ; and the rather stiiF, forked tail, with its acute feathers. 



In the long wings and short forked tail this form differs from our other plainly colored and 

 streaked sparrows. It comes nearest to Passerculus, but the tail is stiffer and more forked ; the 

 feathers more acute. The tertiaries are but little longer than the secondaries, instead of nearly 

 or quite eq^ual to the primaries. The middle toe is considerably shorter. 



Comparative measurements. 



POOCyETES GRAMINEUS, Baird. 



Grass Finch ; Bay-winged Bnntiug. 



Fringilla graminea, Gm. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 922.— AoD. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 473 : V. 



502; pi. 90. 

 1839, 102.— Ib. 



Birds Amer. 



£7ii6cri:ogrami7ica, Wilson, Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 51 ; pi. xxxi, f. 5. — Add. Syn. 



Ill, 1841, 65; pi. 159. 

 fringilla {Zonolrichiii) gra/ninea, Swainson, F. B. Am. II, 1831, 254. 

 Zonotrichia graminea, Bos. List, 1838. — Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 478. 



Sp. Ch. — Tail feathers rather acute. Above light yello%vish brown ; the feathers everywhere streaked abruptly with dark 

 brown, even on the siJes of the neck, which are paler. Beneath yellowish white ; on the breast and sides of neck and boJy 

 streaked with brown. A faint light superciliary and raaxillaiy stripe ; the latter margined above and below with dark brown ; 

 the upper stripe continued around the ear coverts, which are darker than the brown color elsewhere. Wings with the shoulder 

 light chestnut brown, and with two dull whitish bands along the ends of the coverts ; the outer edge of the secondaries also 

 is white. Outer tail feather, and edge and tip of the second white. Length, about 6.25 ; wing, 3.10. 



Huh. — United States from Atlantic to the Pacific ; or else one species to the high central plains, and another from this to the 

 Pacific 



