FBINGILLIDJE : FINCHES, BUNTINGS, SPAEROWS, ETC. 385 



white ; a black line through eye, and another below eye, enclosing a white streak under the 

 eye and the chestnut aurieulars ; next, a sharp black maxiUary stripe not quite reaching the 

 biU, cutting off a white stripe from the white chin and throat. A black blotch on middle of 

 breast. Under parts white, faintly shaded with grayish-brown ; upper parts grayish-brown, 

 the middle of the back with fine black streaks. Tail very long, its central feathers like the 

 back, the rest jet-black, broadly tipped with pure white in diminishing amount from the lateral 

 pair inward, and the outer web of the outer pair entirely white. Length 6.50-7.00; wing 

 3.50, pointed; tail 3.00, rounded. Very young: Crown, back, and nearly all the under parts 

 streaked with dusky ; no chestnut on head, nor are the black stripes firm ; but with the first 

 moult the peculiar pattern of the head-markings becomes evident, and there is little variation 

 afterward with age, sex, or season. A beautiful species, abundant from the eastern edge of 

 the prairies, and even Iowa and Illinois, to the Pacific, U. S. ; occasional in Ohio, and strag- 

 glers have been taken in Massachusetts and about Washington. A sweet songster ; breeds 

 throughout its range ; nest usually on the ground, of dried grass ; eggs 4-7, white, with strag- 

 gling zigzag dark lines, as in many Icteridce; size 0.75-0.85 by about 0.65. 



86. PASSEREL'LA. (Ital. diminutive form of Lat. passer, a sparrow.) Fox Spaerovsts. 

 Remarkable for the size of the feet and claws : Lateral toes elongated to about equal degree, 

 the ends of their claws reaching about half-way to the end of the middle 

 claw ; claws all very large ; middle toe and claw about as long as the tarsus. 

 Wings long and pointed, folding about to the middle of the tail ; point 

 formed by the 3d-4th quills, 1st and 5th little shorter. Tail moderate, a 

 little rounded or nearly even. Bill rather small, strictly conic, with straight 

 outlines and scarcely angulated commissure. Large handsome reddish or 

 slate-colored species, marked below with triangular spots and streaks of . 

 the color of the back. Habits terrestrial and somewhat rasorial. Nest 

 indifferently in trees or bushes or on the ground; eggs greenish, fully pj^ 244. —Bill of 

 speckled. The species, if more than one, are, like those of Junco, Mehspiza, Fox Sparrow, nat. 

 and Pipilo, still imperfectly differentiated. *"'^' 



382. P. ili'aca. (Lat. iUaea, relating to the ilia, or flanks, which are conspicuously marked. Figs. 

 244, 245.) Eastern Fox Sparrow. $, 9 '■ General color above ferrugineous or rusty-red, 

 purest and brightest on the rump, tail, and wings, on the other upper parts appearing in streaks 

 laid on an ashy ground. Below, white, variously but thickly marked except on the belly and 

 crissum with rusty-red — the markings anteriorly in the form of diffuse confluent blotches, on 

 the breast and sides consisting chiefly of sharp arrow-head spots and pointed streaks. Tips of 

 middle and greater wing-coverts forming two whitish bars. Upper mandible dark, lower 

 mostly yellow; feet pale. One of the finest singers of the family ; quite unlike any other Eastern 

 species of sparrow. A large handsome species. Length 6.50-7.25 ; extent 10.50-11.50 ; wing 

 3.25-3.60, averaging 3.40; tail little or not over 3.00, thus decidedly shorter than the wing; 

 bill, along culmen, 0.40; tarsus 0.90; hind claw about 0.35. Sexes alike, and young not 

 particularly different after the first moult, though in an early stage much darker ; back rufous- 

 brown with darker streaks ; no wing-bars ; all the under parts heavily marked. There is 

 much individual variation in color, independently of age, sex, or season. Eastern N. Am. ; 

 W. in the U. S. regularly only to the edge of the Plains, occasionally to Colorado ; but in 

 Alaska to the Pacific; N. to the Arctic coast. Breeds throughout the interior of British 

 America and in Alaska ; not known to do so anywhere in the U. S. Winters from the Middle 

 States southward. Nest on ground or in bushes or trees ; eggs pale greenish-white, thickly 

 speckled with rusty-brown, 0.95X0.70; general aspect of the egg as in Zonotrichia and 

 Mehspiza. 



283. P. i. unalascen'sis. (Of the Island of Unalashka.) Townsend's Fox Sparrow. $, 9 : 

 Greneral color above dark olive-brown, overcast with a reddish-brown tinge, and the streaking 



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