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 PASSERELLINJE. 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, SWAINSON. 



Passerella, SWAINSON, 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. 



PASSEEELLA ILIACA. Swainson. 

 The Fox-colored Sparrow. 



Fringilla iliaca, Audubon. Orn. Biog., II. (1834) 68; 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 



