BIRDS FRINGILLIDAE — CARPODACUS FRONTALIS, 



415 



is no red at all on the belly. The under tail coverts are white, with narrow dark streaks. 

 There are two pale bands across the wings, rather more distinct than in purpureus. The loral 

 region is grayish. 



The females of the two species are very similar, that of O. cassinii only to be readily distin- 

 guished by the larger size and larger and longer bill. The streaks on the breast appear to be 

 rather narrower and better defined. 



List of specimens. 



CAEPODACUS FRONTALIS, Gray. 



Bnrion; House Finch. 



Fringilla frontalis. Sat, Long's Exped. II, 1824, 40.— (.') Add. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 230 ; pi. 424. 



Pyrrhula frontalis, Bon. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 49 ; pi. vi. 



ErythrosiAxa frontalis, Bon. List, 1838.— Ib. Pr. Zool. Soo. 1837, 112 — .'Ann. Syn 1839, 125.— Ib. Birds Amer. Ill, 



1841, 175 ; pi. 197.— Gambel, Jour. A. N. S. 2d Series, I, 1847, 53. 

 Fringilla {Pyrrhula) frontalis, Gambel, Pr. A. N. So. I, 1843, 262. 

 Carpodacus frontalis, Gray, Genera, 1844-'49.— M'Call, Pr. A. N. So. V, 1851, 219. 

 ? Carpodacus oiscurus, M'Call, Pr. A. N. Sc. V, June 1851, 220. Sante Pe. 

 Carpodacus familiaris, M'Call, Pr. A. N. Sc. Vll, April 1852, 61. Santa Fe. 



Red-breasted variety. 



? Pyrrhula cruentata. Lesson, Rev. Zool. 1S39, 101. 



? Carpodacus rhodocolpus, Cab. Mus. Hein. 1851, 166. — Sclateb. Pr. Zool. Soc. 1856, 304. 



Carpodacus frontalis, Bon. & Schlegel, Mon. of Loxiens, 1850, tab. xvi, f. 1. — Ib. Consp. 1850, 533. 



Sp. Ch. — 6426. — Bill short, much curved. Forehead for nearly the length of the bill, a broad superciliary stripe extending 

 to the nape, side of lower jaw, chin, throat, and upper part of the breast, crimson red ; rump, paler. Rest of upper parts with 

 sides of neck grayish brown, with an occasional gloss of red externally on the crown, and with scarcely appreciable darker 

 brown towards the centres of the feathers. Belly, under tail coverts, and sides, whitish, conspicuously streaked with light 

 brown ; sometimes red to the middle of the former. Length, 5.75 ; wing, 3.25 ; tail, 2.80. 



Hob. — Rocky mountains to the Pacific. 



This species is quite remarkable for the very great variation in the shade of red in the 

 different regions of the body. Thus the specimen selected as the basis of the description (6426 

 May 4, El Paso) has this color a bright crimson red ; the rump scarcely different ; the throat 

 and breast almost as bright as the head. The lower part of the red on the breast is tinged 

 with orange — a character seen also in 6431. The red does not extend beneath the closed 

 wings, (the entire sides of body being like the belly,) and fades rather gradually into the white 

 belly ; it extends about as far as the end of the breast bone. The upper tail coverts are like the 

 back ; the back cannot at all be called streaked, the feathers being merely brown, fading very 



