THE YELLOW-WINGED SPARROW. 305 
than the middle toe; the Jateral toes equal, and with their claws falling decidedly 
short of the middle claw; the hind toe intermediate between the two; the wings are 
short and rounded, reaching to the base of the tail; the tertiaries almost as long as 
the primaries; not much difference in the lengths of the primaries, although the 
outer three or four are slightly graduated; the tail is short and narrow, decidedly 
shorter than the wing, graduated laterally, but slightly emarginate; the feathers all 
lanceolate and acute, but not stiffened, as in Ammodromus. 
The upper parts generally are streaked; the blotches on the interscapular. region 
very wide; the breast and sides are generally streaked more or less distinctly; the 
edge of the wing is yellow. 
COTURNICULUS PASSERINUS. — Bonaparte. 
The Yellow-winged Sparrow. 
Fringilla passerina, Wilson. Am. Orn., III. (1811) 76. Aud. Orn. Biog., Il 
(1834) 180; V. 497. 
Coturniculus passerina, Bonaparte. List (1838). 
Fringilla Savanarum (Gmelin), Nuttall. Man., I. (1832) 494. Jb. (2d ed., 
1840), 570. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Feathers of the upper parts brownish-rufous, margined narrowly and abruptly 
with ash-color; reddest on the lower part of the back and rump; the feathers all 
abruptly black in the central portion; this color visible on the interscapular region, 
where the rufous is more restricted; crown blackish, with a central and superciliary 
stripe of yellowish tinged with brown, brightest in front of the eye; bend of the 
wing bright-yellow; lesser coverts tinged with greenish-yellow; quills and tail 
feathers edged with whitish; tertiaries much variegated; lower parts brownish- 
yellow, nearly white on the middle of the belly; the feathers of the upper breast 
and sides of the body with obsoletely darker centres. 
Length, about five inches; wing, two and forty one-hundredths inches; tail, two 
inches. 
The young of this species has the upper part of the breast streaked with black, 
much more distinct than in the adult, and exhibiting a close resemblance to C. Hens- 
lowi. 
Specimens from the Far West have the reddish of the back considerably paler; 
the light stripe on the head, with scarcely any yellow; a decided spot in front 
of the eye quite yellow. 
This bird is irregularly distributed. In Massachusetts it 
is rare near the seacoast, but in the western part is an 
‘abundant summer visitant; arrives about the first week 
in May, and leaves in autumn the earliest of the Sparrows.” 
— ALLEN. It is not included in Mr. Verrill’s list of Maine 
birds; and I have never met with it in that State or the 
other two northern ones, although it probably occurs there, 
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