BIKDS — FRINGILLIDAE — MELOSPIZA MELODIA. 



477 



Prevailing color above olivaceous gray. Stripes of breast purer black, with little 

 or no rufous suifusion externally. Wing 2.50 inches heermanni. 



Similar to the last but much smaller. Wing 2.10 inches Var. gouldii. 



Streaks above and below dark rufous, without black centres. Bill slender. 



Above decidedly rufous brown, the streaks very obsolete, without gray edges. 

 Beneath thickly streaked rujina. 



Above brownish gray. Streaks distinct ; feathers with gray edging. Beneath 

 rather sparsely streaked .fallax. 



Helospiza, Baird. 



B. Under parts white ; breast reddish yellow, with distinct, well defined streaks. Head 

 streaked Jincolnii. 



C. Head above uniform reddish. Beneath white, without streaks, or with very obsolete ones, 

 except on sides of breast. Breast tinged with plumbeous .palustris. 



Comparative measurements of species. 



MELOSPIZA MELODIA, Baird. 



Song spari'ow. 



FriTigiHa melodia, Wilson, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 125; pi. xvi, f. 4. — Licht. Verz. 1823, No. 249. — Aud. Orn. Biog. 



I, 1832, 126 : V, 507 ; pi 25.— 1b. Syn. 1839, 120.— 1b. Birds Amer. Ill, 1841, 147 ; pi. 189. 

 Zonotrichia melodia, Bon. List, 1838. — Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 478. 



?? Fringiltafasciata,' Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 922.— Nuttall, IMan. I, 2d ed. 1840, 562. 

 ??FringiUa hyemalis, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 922. 



Sp. Ch. — General tint of upper parts rufous brown, streaked with dark brown and ashy gray. The crown is rufous, wilh a 

 superciliary and median stripe of dull gray, the former lighter ; nearly white anteriorly, where it has a faint shade of yellow ; each 

 feather of the crown with a narrow streak of dark brown. Interscapulars dark brown in the centre, then rufous, then grayish 



' The fasciated sparrow of Pennant, Arctic Zool. II, 375, upon which Gmelin's name is based, answers pretty well for our 

 species, but the tail is said to be crossed by numerous dusky bars, which is not the case with melodia. The winter sparrow of 

 Pennant, II, 376, Fringitla hyemalis, Gmelin, is equally uncertain. 



