FRINGILLID.E — THE FINCHES. 



525 



Genus PYRGITA, Cuvier. 



Pyryita, Cuvier, R. A. 1817. (Type, Fringilla domestica, LiNX.) 



Passer, Brisson, Oni. 1760. Same type. DEGLAiND & Gekbe, Oni. Europ. I, 1867, 239. 



Gen. Ciiak. Bill robust, swollen, without any distinct ridge ; upper and under outlines 

 curved ; margins inflexed ; palate vaulted, without any knob ; nostrils covered by sparse, 

 short, incumbent feathers ; side of bill with stiff, appressed bristles. Tarsi short and stout, 

 about equal to or shorter than the middle toes; claws short, stout, and considerably curved. 

 Wings longer than tail; somewhat pointed. Tail nearly even, emarginated, and slightly 

 rounded. 



Pyrgita domestica, Cuv. 



THE HOUSE SPARROW. 



Fringilla domestica, Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. 323, 1766. Pyrgita domestica, Cuv. Keg. 

 An. 2d ed. (1829), I, 439. Passer domcsticus, Degland & Gerbe, Ornith. Europ. I, 

 1867, 241. 



Sp. Char. Male. Above chestnut-brown ; the interscapular feathers streaked by black 

 on inner webs; the top of head and nape, lower 

 back, rump, and tail-coverts plain ashy ; narrow 

 frontal line, lores, chin, throat, and jugulum 

 black ; rest of under parts grayish, nearly white 

 along median region. A broad chestnut-brown 

 stripe from behind eye, running into the chest- 

 nut of back ; cheeks and sides of neck white ; 

 outside of closed wing, pale chestnut-brown, 

 with a broad white band on the middle cov- 

 erts, and behind showing the brown quills; 

 the lesser coverts dark chestnut like the head 

 stripe. Tail dark brown, edged with pale 

 chestnut. Bill black ; feet reddish. Iris 

 Ijrown. 



Female. Duller of color, and lacking the black of face and throat; breast and abdomen 

 reddish-ash ; cheeks ashy ; a yellow-ochre band above and behind the eyes, and across 

 the wings. Head and neck above brownish-ash ; body above reddish-ash, streaked lon- 

 gitudinally with black. 



Male in ivinter. The colors generally less distinct. Length, 6.00; wing, 2.85 ; tail, 

 2.50 ; tarsus, .70 ; middle toe and claw, .60. 



The House Sparrow of Europe has been introduced into so many parts 

 of the United States as to render it probable that at no distant day it 

 will have become one of our most familiar species. Brouglit over to tlie 

 New World within a comparatively few years, it has commenced to mul- 

 tiply about the larger cities, especially in the environs of New York, as also 

 aljout Portland, Boston, Newark, and Philadelphia. The first effort made to 

 naturalize it about Washington failed in consequence of the death of three 

 hundred individuals imported by the Smithsonian Institution. A second. 



Pyrgita domestica. 



