l''ltIN(HLLll).l.; - THE FINCHES. 



491 



Wigs and tluuly lincnl with coarse l.airs an.l fino sl.reds of inner Inirk 



. ox ornal dmn.eter i.s a little less than four inches, the rim being aln st 



l.e.fectly cucular; the cavity is an inch and a half deep by two and a half 



The one egg is ,mle blue, the large end rather thickly spattered with fine 

 ots 01 black and ashy-lilac ; is regularly or rather slightly elongate-ova 

 U.e^nall end rather obtuse. It n.casures .80 of an incl^in length ly;^^ 



Genus iBOIOTHUS, C'.vdan. 



co^Li;;;: .:™:7 *r tT'"* -"■ •"•■ -"" - - "■"-—■ "- 



upper mmiiliblu aiu] tlie iiostiils cou- 

 cealed by .stilT, apprcssoil bristly fuatheivs ; 

 midtllo of the mnndible Imviiinr .several 

 ridgo.s parallel with the (■iiliiieii. In- 

 ner lateral toe rather the Ioiijkm-, its 

 claw reachinrr the inidillo of the'^iiii'ddlo 

 claw; the hind toe latlier lonjjer, its 

 claw longer than the din-ital jwrtion. 

 AVinn:s very long, reaehinjr the middle 

 of the tail; second quill a little longer 

 than the first and third. Tail deeply 



fiarked. -X^htUus Ihmrius. 



Difficult as it sometimes is to define with precision the characters of closely 



allied spec.es of birds, there are few genera where this is the case more 



tnkn.gly ban in .Egiothu.. Leaving out of view the peculiar European 



species. It has been a mooted question whether North America, including. 



Greenland, possesses one. two. or six species, owing to the strictly boreal 



distribution of these birds, and the fact 

 tliiit their summer resorts are seldom in- 

 vaded by the naturalist. The necessary 

 means of determining the proper distri- 

 bution of the forms and the variations 

 witli season, locality, and sex, are scarce- 

 ly to be met with in any public mu- 

 seum, that of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, however, being the most complete in 

 this respect. 



he most satisftxctory indications of the diflerent species and varieties his 

 papers in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences 



JEiiioihm llnarius. 



