FRINGILLIDiE, FINCHES, ETC. GEN. 59. 



129 



^. 



** Adult $ with the red partly in definite areas, the lielly streaked, the edging 

 of the wings whitish. 



OrimHon-f ranted Finch. House Finch. Burion. $ with the forehead 

 •and a line over the eye, the ramp, and the chin, throat and breast, crimson ; 

 other upper parts brown, streaked with darker, and marked with dull red, 

 and other under parts white or whitish, streaked with dusky; wings and tail 

 dusky with slight whitish edgings and cross bars. The changes (jf plumage 

 arc parallel with those of C. jmrpureus, lint the species may easily be dis- 

 tinguished in any plumage by its smaller size, with relatively longer wings 

 and tail, these members being absolutely as long or nearly as long as in 

 purjnireus; the tail barelj'' or uot forked ; and especially by the much shorter 

 and more inflated bill, which is almost exactly as represented in the fore- 

 going tignrc of P[/ri-]ijila cassinii. Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, U. S., 

 a very abundant species in the towns and gardens of New Mexico, Arizona 

 and California, where it is as familiar as the European Sparrow has become 

 in many of our large eastern cities ; nests about the houses ; a pleasant song- 

 ster. AuD., iii, 175, pi. 197; Bd., 415; Coop., 156. . . . frontalis. 



59. Genus CURVIROSTRA Seopoli. 



*jit* Distinguished from all other birds by the falcate mandibles with crossed 

 points. Nasal ruff conspicuous ; wings long, pointed ; tail short, forked ; feet 

 strong. Sexes dissimilar; ^ some shade of red, ncarljr uniform, with dusky wings 

 and tail ; 9 brownish or olivaceous, more or less streaked, head and rump 

 frequently' washed with brownish-3'ellow ; 3'oung like the 5 • Irregularly migratory, 

 according to exigencies of the weath- 

 er, eminently gregarious, and feed 

 principally on pine seeds, which they 

 skiltuUjr husk out of the cones with 

 their singular bill. Our two species 

 inhabit the northern parts of Amer- 

 ica, coming southward in tlocks in 

 the fall ; but thej' are also resident in 

 northern and mountainous pine-clad 

 parts of the United States, where 

 they sometimes breed in winter. 



ilf'y White-uunr/ed Orossb'iU. Wings 

 in both sexes with two conspicu- 

 ous wdiite bars ; ^ rosy red, 9 

 brownish-olive, streaked and speckled with dusky, the rump saffron ; about 

 6 ; wing 3J ; tail 2J. WiLS. iv, 48, pi. 31, f. 3 ; AuD., iii, 190, pi. 201 ; 



Bd., 427 LEUCOPTEUA. 



j^'3 Bed Crossbill. Coimnon Crossbill. (Plate iii, figs. 13, 14, 15, 13a, 

 14ffl, 15a.) Wings blackish, unmarked ; <? bricky red ; ^ as in leucoj)ter a, 

 but wings plain. Wils., iv, 44, pi. 31, f. 1, 2 ; Aud., iii, 186, pi. 200; 



Bd. 426; Coop., 148 Americana. 



Var. mexicana. Similar to the last ; bill large, about f of an inch long. Moun- 



KKY TO N. A. BIRDS. 17 



ri<j. 7(;. Wliite-win'^ed Crosabill. 



