42 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



crown feathers with a narrow streak of black, those on crown indistinct. Beneath dull 

 white, tinged with ashy-ochraceous across the breast and along the sides ; crissum pale 

 ochraceous. An obsolete light superciliary, and narrow dusky maxillary stripe. Bend 

 of wing yellow ; lesser coverts tinged with greenish-yellow. Length, 6 inches ; wing, 

 2.65 ; tail, 3.00 ; bill, .32 from nostril, .25 deep at base ; tarsus, .80 ; middle toe, .63. 

 Hab. Los Nogales, Sonora, and Southern Arizona. 



This race has a considerable resemblance to P. ccstivalis, but differs in 

 some appreciable points. The brown of the upper parts is paler, and the 

 ashy edging to the feathers appears rather less extensive. The dark brown 

 blotches on the back are of greater extent, the black streaks on the back 

 confined to a mere streak along the shaft. There is less of an olive tinge 

 across the breast. 



The proportions of the present race differ more from those of cestivalis 

 than do the colors, the bill being more slender, and the wings and tail con- 

 siderably longer. 



The resemblance to P. botterii (= cestivalis, var. hotterii) of Sclater, from 

 Middle Mexico (Orizaba, Colima, etc.), is very close ; the difference being 

 greater in the proportions than in the colors, the latter having a shorter wing 

 and tail, with thicker bill, as in var. cestivalis. In hotterii there is rather a 

 predominance of the black over the rufous in the streaks above. 



Habits. This, in its general habits, nesting, eggs, etc., probably resembles 

 the variety cestivalis. 



Peucsea cassini, Bated. 



CASSIN'S SPARKOW. 



Zonotrichia cassini, Woodhouse, Pr. A. N. Sc. Ph. VI, April, 1852, 60 (San Antonio). 

 Passerculus cassini, Woodhouse, Sitgreaves's Eep. Zuni and Colorado, 1853, 85 ; Birds, 

 pi. iv. Peucma cassini, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 485, pi. iv, f. 2. — Heermann, 

 X, c, p. 12, pi. iv, f. 2. —Cooper, Orn. Cai. I, 219 (not from Cal.). 



Sp. Char. (6,329 $, Texas; compared with type of species.) Ground-color of 

 upper parts grayish-ash ; the middle portion of each feather dull brown, in the form of a 

 blotch, and with a black shaft-streak, the latter becoming modified on scapulars, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts, into transverse spots, those on the upper tail-coverts being large 

 and conspicuous, and in the form of crescentic spots, the terminal margin of the feathers 

 being lighter ashy in sharp contrast. Middle tail-feathers clear ashy, with a sharply 

 defined shaft-streak of blackish, throwing off obsolete, narrow, transverse bars toward 

 the edge ; rest of tail clear dusky-brown, the lateral feather with whole outer web, and 

 margin of the inner, dull white, all, except the intermediate, with a large, abruptly defined, 

 terminal space of dilute brown (decreasing in size from the outer), the margin whitish. 

 Upper secondaries broadly and sharply margined along both edges with dull ashy-white, 

 the enclosed portion being clear dusky brown, intensified where adjoining the whitish. 

 A very obsolete superciliary stripe of ashy, becoming Avhitish over the lore ; auriculars 

 more dingy, but without distinct stripe along upper edge. An uninterrupted but indis- 

 tinct " bridle " along sides of throat. Lower parts dull white, without any ochraceous, 

 but with a very faint ashy tinge over the jugulum ; flanks with broad, somewhat blended 



