52 



(Linaria) griseiniicha m the Bulletin of the Academy of St. Petersburg- 

 (November, 1841, p. 36). In the same work (p. 22), two other forms,, 

 supposed to be "varieties" of ^^ Passer" arctoa, were described, as fol- 

 lows: — (1) " /5. 1. Ex insula Ourilis: cervice cano-albida, dorso 



fusco grysoque nebuloso; subtus nigra ventris et uropygii 



cinnabarinus" etc., and (2) "/?. 2. itidem Ourilica: Capite supra (prse?- 

 ter frontere fuscam) cum cervice ferruginea, dorso fusco ....... sub- 

 tus fusca, roseo crissum totum roseum; uropygii plumse et 



tectricibus caudte ai)ice roste", etc. These descriptions correspond well 

 with the characters of L. atrata and L. australis, respectively, and may 

 possibly be from specimens of those species, though the remoteness of 

 the locality renders the question-extremely doubtful. 



In 1841, a third form {L. hrunneinucha) was discovered inKamtschatka, 

 and described by Dr. Brandt in the paper above cited (p. 35). Two 

 years later, L. griseinucha,, Brandt, was redescribed by Mr. Gould as L. 

 griseogenys in the Proceedings of the London Zoological Society (1843, 

 p. 104), in a paper entitled "On Nine New Birds, collected during the 

 voyage of H. M. S. Sulphur." 



The si^ecies of the genus Leucosticte as restricted* stood thus until 

 the year 1869, when the smaller southern form allied to gnseinucha was 

 described as Z. littoralis by Professor Baird, in the Transactions of the 

 Chicago Academy of Sciences (I, ii, 1869, p. 317, pi. 28, fig. 1); the type 

 being from Sitka, Alaska. The year following, a form intermediate be- 

 tween littoraUs, Baird, and tejjhrocotis, Swains., was described by Profes- 

 sor Baird in one of the Eeports of the Geological Survey of California 

 (Ornithology, I, 1870, 163) as L. campestHs, Baird, based on a specimen 

 obtained at Denver, Colorado, by Dr. Wernigk. This bird now proves 

 to be only one of a transitional series connecting teplirocotis and littO' 

 Talis. 



The next species of the genus which came to light was discovered in 

 July, 1871, by Mr. J. A. Allen, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 

 of Cambridge, who found a singular form breeding upon the alpine 

 summits of Mount Lincoln, Colorado, at an elevation of over 12,000 feet 

 above the sea. This fact was published by the discoverer in the Ameri- 

 can Naturalist for June, 1872 (p. 350), and subsequently in the Bulletin 

 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (III, No. 6, July, 1872, pp. 162- 

 163). The birds obtained by Mr. Allen were called by him L. tephroco- 

 tis ; but attention was called to the fact that they had no ash on the head, 

 as in typical specimens of that species. Mr. Allen's remarks conclude 

 with the suggestion that these specimens "represent the smaller, 

 brighter- colored, southern race, in which the ash on the head has entirely 

 disappeared." Still, no name was proposed for the race. Upon request, 

 these specimens were kindly submitted to the authors of the " History of 

 North American Birds," who, after due comparison, decided that they, in 

 all iDrobability, represented the summer, or breeding, plumage of ordinary 

 L. teplirocotis, of which only winter-examples had been seen ,• they were 

 accordingly described as such in that work (vol. I, pp. 504-505, foot- 

 note). Shortly afterthis decision, however, a very large collection of var. 

 griseinucha in its breeding-plumage was received at the National Museum 

 from the Aleutian Islands, where they were collected by the well-known 

 artist Mr. Henry W. Elliott; and, while these had the jet-black bill and 

 heightened crimson, characteristic of the breeding-season, the ash of the 

 hecid remained the same ! This fact at once promjited a new examination 

 of the Mount Lincoln series, after which it was decided that they did 

 not represent merely the breeding-plumage of var. tephrocotis, but that. 



* We exclude from the geBus L. arctoa, L. giglioli, and their allies, (See p. 67 ) 



