288 BIRDS OP ILLINOIS. 



the middle toe. Brown above, either uniformly so or faintly 

 streaked; triangular spots below. 



' "This section embraces a single North American geniis, chiefly 

 characterized by the remarkable elongation of the lateral claws, as 

 ■well as by the peculiar shape and large size of all the claws; the 

 lateral, especially, are so much lengthened as to extend nearly as 

 far as the middle. The only approach to this, as far as I recol- 

 lect, among United States Conirostres, is in P'qnlo megalonyx, and 

 Xatrthocephalus icterocephalus. {Hist. N. Am. B.) 



Genus PASSERELLA Swainson. 



FassereVa Swainson, Class. BirJs, ii, 1837, 288. Type, FrlngiUa iliaca Mereem. 



"Gen. Chae. Body stout. Bill conical, not notched, the outlines straight; the two 

 jaws of eaual 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 latei'al; 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 

 scarcely longer than secondaries ; second and third quills longest; first equal to the fifth. 

 Tail very nearly even, scarcely longer tlum the wing. Inner claw cont-ained scarcely one 

 and a half times in its toe proper. 



"Color. Eufous or slaty; obsoletely streaked or uniform above; thickly spotted witli 

 triangular blotches beneath." iUist. N. Am. B.) 



A single species of this genus belongs to Nortlr America. It is 

 represented in the West by P. schistacea, Baied, in the Eoeky 

 Mountains and west to the Sierra Nevada; by P. megarhi/ncha, 

 Baied, in the southern portion of the Pacific coast ranges, and by 

 P. unalaschcensis (Gmel.) along the more northern portion of the 

 Pacific Coast. All these forms intergrade either with one another or 

 with P. iliaca, but whether these intergradations are due to hybridism 

 or bear the more important significance which has been assigned 

 to them, future knowledge alone can decide. 



Passerella iliaca (Merrem). 



FOX SPAEKOW. 



Popular synonyms. ITox-oolored Sparrow; Eufous Sparrow. 



FrlngiUa iliaca Meeeem, Beit. Gesch. Vog. ii, 178C-87, 49, pi. 10.— Nutt. Man. 1, 1832, 514.— 

 AuD. Orn. Biog. ii, 1834, 68; v, 18.39, 512, pi. 108; Synop. 1839,119; B. Am. iii,1841, 139, 

 pi. 185. 



