FRIXGILLID.E — THE FINCHES. 241 



"An aLundant winter resident. Arrives in flocks, the first of 

 November, and remains until about the middle of March. The 5th 

 of Alarch, 1875, I saw a tloclv of these birds in a tree in Chicago. 

 The males were chantmg a very low and somewhat broken, but very 

 pleasant, song, bearing considerable resemblance to that of Spizella 

 monticula. This and the following species, [Calcarius lapponicus\, 

 as well as other winter residents, appear a week or more earlier in 

 the fall, and depart later in the spring, in the vicinity of the lake, 

 than in any other parts of the State in the same latitude." 



The Snow Bunting breeds throughout the Arctic regions of both 

 continents, the National Museum possessing nests from the most 

 northern point of Alaska (Point Barrow) and from Labrador, as 

 well as from various intermediate localities. 



Gentjs calcarius Bechstein. 



Calcarius Bechst. Orn. Taseh. Deiitsch. 1803, 130. Type. FringiUa lapponica LiNN. 



Gen. Char. Bill small, the gonys very .short, with its angle opposite the middle of 

 the culmen; maxilla equal to or exceeding the mandible in depth, the depth of the bill 

 not exceeding the length of the gonys. Middle toe. with claw, shorter than tarsus, the 

 middle claw falling short of that of the hallux. Tail longer than the distance from the 

 carpal joint to the tips of the tertials (except in C. oriiatus). 



The three species of this genus differ considerably in the details 

 of form, but it is probable that these differences are of no more 

 than specific value. Thus C. onuitus differs from both C. picttis 

 and C. lapponicus in having the tail much shorter than the distance 

 from the carpal joint of the wing to the end of the tertials, in 

 which respect it agrees with lihrinchophanes mccoicnii, but tliis is 

 apparently owing more to the greater development of the second- 

 aries than to a really reduced length of the tail. In the form of 

 the bill, however, it agrees very closely with C. pictus, which, as 

 does also that of C. ornatus, differs from that of C. lapponicus m. 

 being more slender and pointed. 



The species may be distinguished by the following characters : 



Common Chakacters. Above brown, spotted with black. Male with the crown and 

 other parts of the head black. 



A. OutiT fail-feathers dusky at the base. 



1. C. lapponicus. Lower parts dull whitish, ^d»?? mrt/p in SHmmer; Head and jugu- 

 lum black, with a broad white supra-auricular stripe; nape bright chestnut-rufous; 

 lesser wing-coverts grayish; middle coverts dusky. In winter: Similar, but 

 throat whitish, jugular patch badly defined, head much tinged with ochraceous, 

 and rufous of nape obscured by grayish. Adult female in summer: Head mostly 

 dull buffy, the crown with two broad lateral stripes of broad dusky streaks, the 



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