530 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



tail. First quill longest. Head striped. Back streaked. White 

 beneath. A white blotch on the end of the tail-feathers. 

 Zonotrichia. Tail moderately graduated. Wings moderate, about as 

 long as the tail, reaching about over the basal fourth of the tail ; first 

 quill less than the second to iburth. Feet large. Head striped with 

 black and white, or with brown and ochraceous. Back streaked. 

 Junco. Tail very nearly equal to the wings, slightly emarginate, and 

 decidedly rounded. Outer toe rather longer than inner, reaching the 

 middle claw. No streaks anywhere except in young ; black or ash- 

 color above; belly white; with or without a rufous back and sides. 

 Outer tail-feathers white. 



Poospiza. Tail lengthened, slightly graduated ; the feathers unusually 

 broad to the end. Bill slender. Wings about as long as the tail, reach- 

 ing but little beyond its external base. Tertials broad, and, with the 

 secondaries, rather lengthened. Second to fifth quills nearly equal, and 

 longest. Bill dark lead-color. Tail black. Uniform ashy-brown 

 above ; white beneath. Sides of head with stripes of black and white. 



b. Tail decidedly forked ; a little shorter than the wing, sometimes a little 



longer. 



Spizella. Size rather small. Wings long. Lower mandible largest. 

 Uniform beneath, or with a pectoral spot or the chin black. 



C. Tail lengthened and graduated ; decidedly longer than the wings, which are 

 very short, scarcely extending beyond the external base of the tail. Feet reach- 

 ing but little beyond the middle of the tail. Species all streaked above ; streaked 

 or nearly unicolor beneath. No white on wings or tail. Outer lateral toe the 

 longer. First quill not the shortest of the primaries. (Melospizece.) 



Melospiza. Culmen and commissure nearly straight. Claws stout; 

 liinder one as large as its digit. Tail-feathers rather broad. Body 

 streaked beneath. 



Peucaea. Culmen and commissure curved. Claws weak ; hinder one 

 not much curved, decidedly shorter than its digit. Tail-feathers narrow. 

 Without streaks beneath, excepting a narrow maxillary stripe. 



D. Tail rather short, and much graduated; longer than the wings; the midrib 

 more median. Culmen curved. Tarsus considerably longer than middle toe. 

 Outer toe longer. But little difference in the length of the quills; the outer 

 ones much rounded ; even the second quill is shorter than any other primary 

 except the first. 



Umbernagra. Color, olive-green above. 



Genus CENTRONYX, Baird. 



Ccntronyx, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 440. (Type, Embcriza hairdi, AuD.) 



Gen. Char. Bill elongated; the lower mandible smaller; outlines nearly straight. 

 Tarsus lengthened, considerably exceeding the middle toe. Lateral toes equal, not reach- 

 ing the base of the middle claw. Hind toe very large ; the claw rather longer than its 

 digit, and in its elongation resembling Fledrophanes, but more curved; the digit and claw 

 together rather longer than the middle toe and claw. Wings very long, reaching beyond 

 the middle of the tail, and beyond the end of the coverts. Tertials shorter than the 

 primaries, and but little longer than the secondaries. Tail short, much less than from the 

 carpal joint to end of secondaries; httle more than two thirds the entire wing. It is 



