BIRDS — FRINGiLLIDAE PIPILO FUSCUS. 



517 



List of specimens. 



PIPILO FUSCU.S, S w a i n s o n . 



Pipilo fusca, Sw. Philos Mag. I, 1827,434—? Ib. Anim. in Menag 183S, 347.— Bonap. Conspectus, 1850,487.— 

 Cassin, lUust. I, IT, 1853, 124 ; pi. xvii. (The figure seems to be of the California species, the 

 description more like mtsoleucus.) — Neweekky, Zool. Cal. &, Or. Route, Rep. P. R. R. VI, iv, 1857, 89. 



Kieneria fusca, Bonap. Comptes Rendus, XL, 1855, 356. 



Fringilla crissalis, ViaoES, Zool. Blossom, 1839, 19. 



Sp. Ch. — Above dark olive brown, the crown with a very slight tinge of scarcely appreciable dark rufous. Under parts with 

 the color somewhat similar, but of a lighter shade, and washed with grayish; middle of the belly ashy white; the under tail 

 coverts pale rufoue, shading into lighter about the vent and sides of lower belly ; chin and upper part of throat well defined pale 

 rufous, margined all round by brown spots, a few of them scattered within the margin. Eyelids and sides of head, anterior to 

 the eye, rufous like the throat. One or two feathers on the lower part of the breast with a concealed brown blotch. Outer 

 primary not edged with white. 



Length, 9 inches ; wing, 4 ; tail, 5. 



Ilab. — Coast region of California. 



In this species the bill is sinuated as in P. ahertii, differing from that of P. erythropJUhalmtis. 

 The wing is much rounded ; the fourth quill longest ; the first shorter than the secondaries. 

 The tail is considerably graduated ; the feathers broad ; the outer about . 70 of an inch shorter 

 than the middle ones. 



This species is much darker than P. ahertii, and lacks the black on chin and side of head ; 

 the chin and throat are abruptly different from the breast ; the light patch margined with 

 black spots. 



I do not feel sure that this species is really the P fuscus of Swainson. His description of 

 " Gray, beneath paler ; throat obscure fulvous, with brown spots ; vent ferruginous. Length, 8; 

 bill, . 70 ; wings, 3.50 ; tail, 4 ; tarsi, . 90 ; hind toe and claw, . 70," as given in 1827, differs 

 from that of 1838. "Grayish brown above; beneath white; chin and throat fulvous, with 

 dusky spots ; under tail coverts fulvous ; tail blackish brown, unspotted. Bill and legs pale, 

 the latter smaller, and the claws more curved than in any other known species ; crown with a 

 pale rufous tinge. Length, 7.50 ; wings, 3.50 ; tail, 4 ; tarsus, . 90 ; middle toe and claw the 

 same; hinder toe, .65." These proportions are certainly quite different from tliose of the 

 California species, nor are the colors of either paragraph the same. It is possible that the first 

 description is that of the present bird, and the second that of a species allied to P. mesoleucus, 

 but it is quite as likely that both of these are entirely different from Swainson's P. fuscus. 



