278 FRINGILLID^ : FINCHES. 



on such occasions is a chuck, chuck, uttered with much 

 energy. The beautiful song is sometimes heard in 

 the autumn as well as in the spring. In the Arctic 

 regions, where the bird breeds, the nest is placed on 

 or near the ground, and the eggs are marbled with 

 rusty-brown, often so thickly as to conceal the ground- 

 color. 



LARK FINCH. 

 Chondestes grammicus {Say^ Bf. 



Chars. " Head curiously variegated with chestnut, black, and white; 

 crown chestnut, blackening on forehead, divided by a median stripe, 

 and bounded by superciliary stripes of white ; a black line through 

 eye, and another below eye, enclosing a white streak under the eye, 

 and the chestnut auriculars ; next, a sharp black maxillary stripe 

 not quite reaching the bill, cutting off a white stripe from the white 

 chin and throat. A black blotch in middle of breast. Under parts 

 white, faintly shaded with grayish-brown ; upper parts grayish- 

 brown, the middle of the back with fine black streaks. Tail very 

 long, its central feathers like the back, the rest jet black, broadly 

 tipped with pure white in a diminishing amount from the lateral 

 pair inward, the outer web of the outer pair entirely white ; 6.50 to 

 7.00; wing, 3.50, pointed; tail, 3.00, rounded." — {Cones.) 



Three instances of the occurrence of this Western 

 bird in New England have been recorded. In each 

 case the specimen was taken in Massachusetts. One 

 was secured at Gloucester, about 1845 {Putncnn, Pr. 

 Essex Inst., i, 1856, p. 224). Another was taken at 

 Newtonville, Nov. 25, 1877 {Purdic, Bull. Nutt. Club, 

 iii, 1878, p. 44). The third was shot at Magnolia, 

 Aug. 29, 1879 ( Tozvnscnd, Bull. Nutt. Club, v, 1880, 

 p. 53). The appearance of the bird so far from its 

 normal range is of course fortuitous. 



