544 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Passerculus rostratus, vai. guttatus, Lawk. 



ST. LUCAS SPARROW. 



Passerculus guUatus, Lawi;exce, Ann. N. Y. Lye. VIII, 1867, 473. — Cooper, Orn. Cal. 

 I, 185. 



Sp. Char. Above plumbeous-gray ; the feathers of the back with dusky centres and 

 paler edges ; the top of head also streaked with dusky and with an almost inappreciable 

 median stripe of lighter. Upper tail-coverts slightly darker in the centre. No rufous 

 edgings to the feathers. Head with a pale yellowish-white band from bill over the eye ; 

 and a mandibular one, nearly white, bordered above and below by the dusky line of 

 other Passerculus. Under parts white, thickly streaked on jugulum, breast, and flanks 

 with dusky, faintly on under tail-coverts. Bill and legs rather dusky; iris brown. Length, 

 5.00; wing, 2.50; tail, 1.95; tarsus, .80; middle toe and claw, .75; bill above. .51; gape, 

 .56 ; greatest height, .25. 



Hab. Cape St. Lucas (Dec, 1859). 



This bird, of which a single specimen only is so far known, is very closely 

 related to P. rostratus, though very easily distinguished from it. It is con- 

 siderably smaller than rostratus, the bill more slender, the upper parts much 

 darker, being plumbeous, not sandy-colored ; the stripes beneath darker ; the 

 bill and legs more dusky. These differences may not indicate a distinct 

 species, but as the specimen here described differs entirely from all the speci- 

 mens of a large number of P. rostratus, it is yet entitled to consideration as 

 a marked variety, — probably the resident race at Cape St. Lucas, where the 

 var. rostratus is merely a winter visitor. 



Habits. The St. Lucas Finch is a new species, in regard to the habits 

 of which nothing whatever is as yet known. It was obtained at San Jose, 

 in Lower California, by Mr. John Xantus, in December, 1859. It was found 

 in company with a Hock of Passerculus rostratus, and the presumption is that 

 its habits may resemble those of that little-known species. 



Genus POOCJSBTES, Baird. 



Poocceles, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 447. (Type, Fringilla graminca, Gm.) 



Gen. Char. Bill rather large ; upper outline slightly decurved towards the end, lower 

 straight ; commissure slightly concave. Tarsus about equal to the middle toe ; outer toe 

 a little longer than the inner, its claw reaching to the concealed base of the middle claw ; 

 hind toe reaching to the middle of the middle claw. Wings unusually long, reaching to 

 the middle of the tail as far as the coverts, and pointed; the primaries considerably longei- 

 than the secondaries, which are not much surpassed by the tertiaries; second and third 

 quills longest ; first little shorter, about equal to the fourth, shorter than the tail ; the outer 

 feathers scarcely shorter; the feathers rather stiff; each one acuminate and sharply point- 

 ed ; the feathers broad nearly to the end, when they are obliquely truncate. Streaked 

 with brown above everywhere ; beneath, on the breast and sides. The latei'al tail-feather 

 is white. Shoulder chestnut-brown. 



