THE GRASS FINCH. 303 
The male, during the mating and the early part of the 
breeding season, has a very swect and pretty song which he 
chants most often at morning and early evening, and during 
dark and cloudy weather. 
This song is difficult of description: it resembles nearly 
the syllables ’chewée ’chewitt ’chewitt ’chewitt ’chewé et ’chewée, 
uttered slowly and plaintively. It has also a short chirp, 
quite faint, yet shrill, which, as Mr. Nuttall truly remarks, 
almost exactly resembles the chirping of a cricket. 
About the first week in October, this species gathers in 
small, detached flocks; and, after frequenting the stubble- 
fields and gardens a week or two, the whole leave for the 
South. 
POOCATES, Barrp. 
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 longer 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 pointed; the feathers broad nearly to the end, 
when they are obliquely truncate; streaked with brown above everywhere; beneath, 
on the breast and sides; the lateral tail feather is white. 
POOCETES GRAMINEUS. — Baird. 
The Grass Finch; Bay-winged Bunting. 
Fringilla graminea, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 922. Aud. Orn. Biog., I. 
(1881) 473; V. 502. 
Emberiza graminea, Wilson. Am. Orn., IV. (1811) 51. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Tail feathers rather acute; above light yellowish-brown; the feathers everywhere 
streaked abruptly with dark-brown, even on the sides of the neck, which are paler; 
beneath yellowish-white; on the breast and sides of neck and body streaked with 
brown; a faint light superciliary and maxillary stripe; the latter margined above 
and below with dark-brown; the upper stripe continued around the ear coverts, 
which are darker than the brown color elsewhere; wings with the shoulder light 
chestnut-brown, and with two dull-whitish bands along the ends of the coverts; the 
outer edge of the secondaries also is white; outer tail feather, and edge and tip 
of the second, white. 
