FRINGILLID.E — THE FINCHES. 585 



Bannister, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 284. —Cooper, Orii. Cal. I, 199. Frimjilla hudsonia, 

 LicHT. Beit. Faun. Cal. in Abh. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, for 1838, 1839, 424 (not F. 

 hudsonia, Forster). '^FringiUu utrata, Brandt, Icon. Rosso-As. tab. ii, f. 8 " 

 (Cab.). 



Sp. Char. Head and neck all round sooty-black; this color extending to the upper 

 part of the breast, but not along the sides under the wings, and with convex outline 

 behind. Interscapular region of the back and exposed surface of the Aving-co verts and 

 secondaries dark rufous-brown, forming a square patch. A lighter, more pinkisli tint of 

 the same on the sides of breast and belly. Rest of under parts clear white. Rump 

 brownish-ash. Upper tail-coverts dusky. Outer two tail-feathers white ; the thii'd with 

 only an obscure streak of white. Bill flesh-color, dusky at tip. Legs flesh-color. Length 

 about 6.50 inches ; wing, 3.00. 



Hab. Pacific coast of the United States to the eastern side of the Rocky ^Mountains, 

 and north to Alaska. Stragglers as far east as Fort Leavenworth in winter and Great 

 Bend of Missouri. 



Sitka and Oregon specimens have the back of a darker rufous than those 

 from California and the Middle Province, in which this portion of the body, 

 as well as the sides, is paler, and in more abrupt contrast with the head. 



Immature and the majority of winter specimens do not have the black 

 of the head and neck so well defined, but edged above more or less with the 

 color of the back, below with light ashy. 



The Oregon Snowbird in full phimage is readily distinguishable from the 

 eastern species by the purer white of the belly ; the more sharply definetl 

 outline of the black of the head passes directly across the upper part of tlie 

 breast, and is even convex in its posterior outline, without extending down 

 the side of the breast, with its posterior outline strongly concave, as in hyc- 

 malis. The absence of black or ashy-brown under the wings, with the rufous 

 tinge, are highly characteristic of on'tjonus. The head and neck are consid- 

 erably blacker ; the rufous of the back and wings does not exist in the other. 

 The wings and quills are more pointed ; tlie second quill usually longest, in- 

 stead of the third, etc. Tlie dusky of the throat reaches in J. oregonus only 

 to the upper part of the breast ; to its middle region in lnjanalis. 



Sometimes, in adidt males, tlie middle and greater wing-coverts are faintly 

 tipped with wddte, indicating two inconspicuous bands. 



In a large series of Jancos collected at Fort Whipple, Arizona, liy Dr. 

 Coues, are several specimens so decidedly intermediate between J. orcf/onus 

 and J. caniccps as to suggest the probability of their Ijeing hybrids ; others, 

 from Fort Burgwyn and Fort Bridger, are exactly like tliem. With the ashy 

 head and jugulum, and black lores, as well as bright rufous back, of the latter, 

 the sides are pinkisli as in the former ; while, as in this too, the posterior out- 

 line of the ash on jugulum is convex, not concave, and the rufous of the back 

 has a tendency to tinge the wings, instead of being confined to the interscap- 

 ulars. (See foot-note to synoptical table, p. 579.) 



Hahits. Dr. Suckley found this liird extremely abundant in Oregon and 

 AVashington Territory, where it holds about the same position tliat the Juje- 

 74 



