562 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



larger than in the caudacutus. There is, indeed, no similarity between the 

 two eggs. They measure .88 by .68 of an inch. 



Genus CHONDESTES, Swainson. 



Chondestes, Swainson, Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 435. — Ib. Fauna Bor.-Aiu. 11, 1831. (Type, 

 Chondestes strigatus, Sw., equal to Fringilla grammaca, Say.) 



Gen. Char. Bill swollen ; both outlines gently curved ; the lower mandible as high as 



the upper; the commissure angu- 



lated at the base, and then slightly 

 sinuated. Lower mandible rather 

 narrower at the base than the length 

 of the gonys ; broader than the 

 upper. Tarsi moderate, about equal 

 to the middle toe ; lateral toes equal 

 and very short, reaching but little 

 beyond the middle of the penulti- 

 mate joint of the middle toe, and 

 falling considerably short of the 

 base of middle claw. Wings, long, 

 pointed, reaching nearly to the mid- 

 dle of the tail ; the tertials not 

 longer than the secondaries; the 



first quill shorter than the second and third, which are equal. The tail is moderately 



long, considerably graduated, the feathers rather narrow, and elliptically rounded at the 



end. 



Streaked on the back. Head with well-defined large stripes. Beneath white, with a 



pectoral spot. Only one species recognized. 



Chondestes grammaca, Bonap. 



LARK SPARROW. 



Fringilla grammaca, Say, in Long's Exped. R. Mts. 1, 1823, 139. — Bon. Am. Orn. 1, 

 1825, 47, pi. V, f. 3. — AuD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 17, pi. cccxc. Chondestes grammaca, 

 Bon. List, 1838. — 1b. Conspectus, 1850, 479. — Baiiid, Birds N. Am. 1858, 456.— 

 Cooper & Suckley, 200. — Maynard, Birds E. Mass. 1870, 112 (Massachusetts). — 

 Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 193. Emheriza grammaca, Aud. Synopsis, 1839, 101. — 1b. 

 Birds Am. Ill, 1841, 63, pi. clviii. — Max. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 343. Chondestes 

 strigatus, Swainson, Philos. Mag. 1, 1827, 435. 



Sp. Char. Hood chestnut, tinged with black towards the forehead, and with a median 

 stripe and superciliary stripe of dirty whitish. Rest of upper parts pale grayish-olive, the 

 interscapular region alone streaked with dark brown. Beneath white, a round spot on the 

 upper part of the breast, a broad maxillary stripe cutting off a white stripe above, and a 

 short line from the bill to the eye, continued faintly behind it, black. A white crescent 

 under the eye, bordered below by black and behind by chestnut, on the ear-coverts. Tail- 

 feathers dark brown, the outermost edged externally and with more than terminal third 

 white, with transverse outline ; the white decreasing to the next to innermost, tipped 

 broadly with white. Length, G inches ; wing, 3.39. 



