

SPECIES 12. FRINGILLA 



SHARP-TAILED FINCH. 

 [Plate XXXIV. Fig. 3.] 



Sharp-toiled Oriole, LATH. Gen. Syn. u, p. 448, pL XVII. 

 PEALE'S Museum, JVfo. 6442. 



A BIRD of this denomination is described byTurton, Syst. p. 

 562, but which by no means agrees with the present. This how- 

 ever, may be the fault of the describer, as it is said to be a bird 

 of Georgia; unwilling, therefore, to multiply names unneces- 

 sarily, I have adopted his appellation. In some future part of the 

 work I shall settle this matter with more precision. 



This new (as I apprehend it) and beautiful species as an asso- 

 ciate of the former, inhabits the same places, lives on the same 

 food; and resembles it so much in manners, that but for their 

 dissimilarity in some essential particulars, I would be disposed to 

 consider them as the same in a different state of plumage. They 

 are much less numerous than the preceding, and do not run 

 with equal celerity. 



The Sharp-tailed Finch is five, inches and a quarter long, 

 and seven inches and a quarter in extent; bill dusky; auriculars 

 ash ; from the bill over the eye, and also below it, run two broad 

 stripes of brownish orange; chin whitish; breast pale buff, marked 

 with small pointed spots of black; belly white; vent reddish 

 buff; from the base of the upper mandible a broad stripe of pale 

 ash runs along the crown and hind head, bordered on each side 

 by one of blackish brown; back a yellowish brown olive, some 

 of the feathers curiously edged with semicircles of white; sides 

 under the wings buff, spotted with black; wing coverts and ter- 

 tials black, broadly edged with light reddish buff; tail cuneiform, 



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