152 FE1NGILLID7E, FINCHES, ETC. — GEN. 85. 



^ U Var. ALLENii CouES, Am. Nat. 1871, 3CG. Similar; smaller; less wliite on the 



wings and tail ; claws longer ; iris white. Florida. P. ieacoyMs Maynaud, B irds of 

 Florida (in press). 



1 1 Seapnlars and wing coverts with white spots ; sexes more alilie. 



a' & t)"" Spoiled Toivhee. A Mexican speuics maculatus. 



Represented in the United States b}' the following varieties : — 



Var. ORBGOxas. Oregon Towhee. Very similar to enjtlirophthalmus ; wing 

 coverts with small rounded, and scapulars with larger oval, white spots on the outer 

 web of the feathers near the end ; white marks on the quills very small or wanting ; 

 white spots on tail feathers very small, the outer web of the outer rectrix not white 

 except just at the end. Excepting these particulars, this varietj^ looks more like 

 erythrophthalmus, than like the t3'pical maculatus, in which the body colors are 

 olivaceous ; nevertheless, it shades into the latter. On the other hand, erijtkropJi- 

 thulmns, which might seem to be merely the extreme link in the chain, maj^ be fairly 

 considered a different bird; its sexes are very unlike, whereas in the western Ijlack 

 Pipilos the ? is blacliiish-brown, more like the ^ ; its note is entirely dilferent, 

 the words "towhee" and "cliewink" l)eing an attempt to imitate the sound, 

 while the cry of the western varieties of maculatus is exactlj' lilce the scolding mew 

 of a catbird. — Pacific coast. Pipilo orejjonus Bell, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. v , 

 1852, G ; Bd., 513 ; Coop., 241. P. ardias Aud., iii, 164, pi. 104. 

 ^ Var. AiiCTiC'us. Arctic Towhee. Similar to the foregoing ; the white spots of 



tlie wing coverts larger, those of the scapulars still larger and lengthening into 

 streaks, the interscapulars also spotted with white ; the white on the quills and tail 

 feathers at a maximum, as in eri/thropiJttliulnms; there are usually, also, concealed 

 white specks in the black of the throat. 9 comparatively' darlc. Central region 

 of N. A. P. arcticus Swaixsox, Fauna Bor.-Am. 1831, 11, 2G0. Nott., i, 589 ; 

 2d ed. i, GIO ; Bd., 514. 



Var. MEGALOXYX Bd., 515, pi. 73 ; Coop., 242, is the prevailing form in the 

 Southern Rocky Mountain region, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. It is 

 precisel.y lilte arcticus, but the feet are larger, with highly developed claws ; the 

 hind chiw is decidedlj' longer than its digit, while the lateral claws reach to or 

 liej'ond the middle of the middle claw. In this form at any rate, the J is hardly 

 distinguishable in color from the ^ , being blackish with an appreciable olivaceous 

 shade, thus exhibiting an approach to the typical Mexican stock. (See Coues, 

 Troe. Phila. Acad. 18G6, 89 ; Allex, Bull. Bins. Comp. Zool., iii.) 



* * Colors not definitely black, white and chestnut ; no greenish ; sexes alike. 



J, l'-* Brown Toioliee. Canon Towhee. Above, uniform grayish-hrowu witli a 

 slight olivaceous shade, the crown brown in appreciable contrast ; wings and 

 tail like the back, unmarked ; below, a paler shade of the color of the back, 

 wdiitening on tiie belly, tinged with fulvons and streaked with dnsky on the 

 throat and breast, washed \\\i\\ rusty brown ou the flanks and crissum. 8i ; 

 wing 3| ; tail 4.J-. New INIcxico, Arizona, and southward. This is the 

 P. mesoleucus^n., 518; Coues, Proc. Phila. Acad. 1866, 'JO; Coop., 247, 

 which is P. ft ISC us Swainson, Pliilos. j\Iag. 1827, 434, of JMoxico. ruscus. 



Oj Var. ALP>i(iuLA. Exactlj'' like the last, but the white of the under parts extending 

 fin-ther up the breast, the gular spots more restricted, sparser, and better defined. 

 Cape St. Lucas. Bd., Proc. Phila. Acad. 1859, 305 ; Elliot, pi. 4 ; Coop., 248. 



