oe Cy ATMS 
THE FOX-COLORED SPARROW. 325 
wild oats, and insects. They have no song; are distinguished by a 
single chip or cheep, uttered in a rather hoarser tone than that of 
the Song Sparrow ; flirt the tail as they fly ; seldom or never take 
to the trees, but skulk from one low bush or swampy thicket to 
another.” 
Sub-Family PAssERELLINZ. —The Buntings. 
Toes and claws very stout; the lateral claws reaching beyond the middle of the 
middle one; all very slightly curved. 
Bill conical, the outlines straight; both mandibles equal; wings long, longer 
than the even tail, reaching nearly to the middle of its exposed portion; hind claw 
longer than its digit; its toe nearly as long as the middle toe; tarsus longer than 
the middle toe; brown above, either uniformly so or faintly streaked; triangular 
spots below. 
PASSERELLA, Swarnson. 
Passerella, Swanson, Class. Birds, II. (1837) 288. (Type Fringilla iliaca, 
Merrem.) 
Body stout; bill conical, not notched, the outlines straight; the two jaws of 
equal depth; roof of upper mandible deeply excavated, and vaulted, not knobbed; 
tarsus scarcely longer than the middle toe; outer toe little longer than the inner, its 
claw reaching to the middle of the central one; hind toe about equal to the inner 
lateral; the claws all long, and moderately curved only; the posterior rather longer 
than the middle, and equal to its toe; wings long, pointed, reaching to the middle 
of the tail; the tertials not longer than secondaries; second and third quills longest; 
first equal to the fifth; tail very nearly even, scarcely longer than the wing; inner 
claw contained scarcely one and a half times in its toe proper. 
Color. — Rufous or slaty; obsoletely streaked or uniform above; thickly spotted 
with triangular blotches beneath. 
PASSERELLA ILIACA. — Swainson. 
The Fox-colored Sparrow. 
Fringilla ilaca, Audubon. Orn. Biog., IT. (1834) 58; V. 612. 
Passerella iliaca, Swainson. Birds, II. (1837) 288. 
Fringilla rufa, Wilson. Am. Orn., III. (1811) 53. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Middle of the back dull-ash, each feather with a large blotch of brownish-red; 
top of head and neck, with rump, similar, but with smaller and more obsolete 
blotches; upper tail coverts, with exposed surface of wings and tail, bright-rufous; 
beneath white, with the upper part of the breast and sides of throat and body with 
triangular spots of rufous, and a few smaller ones of blackish on the middle of the 
