386 



SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS — PA SSEBES — OSCINES. 



Pis. 245. 



obsolete, — thus giving a uniform and continuous ruddy-olive tone, becoming more foxy-red on 

 the rump, wings, and tail. Wing-bars obsolete. Beneath, white, thickly marked, excepting 

 on the middle of the belly, with triangular spots of about the same dark color as the back, — 

 aggregated on the breast, and the entire sides of the neck and body almost like the back in 

 uniformity of the color, but still showing ill-defined confluent dark reddish-brown streaks on a 



more olive-brown ground. Cheeks 

 and auriculars with some whitish 

 speckling. No obvious mark- 

 ings on wings. Bill dusky above, 

 apparently reddish or yellowish 

 below ; feet reddish-brown. Size 

 of iliaca, but very different-look- 

 ing in color, and somewhat differ- 

 ently proportioned ; wing aver- 

 aging 3.25, and tail scarcely or 

 not shorter; bill about 0.50; 

 hind claw the same, and as long 

 as its digit. A curious form, re- 

 lated to iliaca much as Melospiza 

 rufina is to the Eastern song spar- 

 row. Pacific coast region, from 

 Alaska to California, breeding in 

 mountains and northward. (P. 

 -Fox Sparrow, reduced. (Sheppard del. Nichols sc.) tOWnsenM A-a&. Ayxct.) 



S84. P. i. schista'cea. (Lat. scMstacea, slaty ; Gr. crxi^a-Tos, schistos, fissile or cleft, as slate-stone 

 is; the allusion, however, is to the color.) Slate-oolobed Fox Spaeeow. $, 9: General 

 color above uniform slate with a slight olive tinge, becoming dull foxy-red on the vrings and 

 tail ; the streaking of the back obsolete, but whitish wing bars sometimes indicated. Below, 

 white, shaded along the sides with the color of the back, but not so as to obscure the decided 

 markings of the parts ; the under parts at large spotted and streaked with dusky-brown, usually 

 aggregated into a blotch on the breast. This is the connecting link between iliaca and una- 

 lascensis; the upper parts are nearly of the slaty-ash that forms the ground color of iliaca, 

 only the foxy streaks of the back are obsolete. The spotting below is correspondingly darker. 

 The form has, however, some peculiarities : tail decidedly longer in comparison with the wings. 

 Length about 7.00; wing 3.00-3.25; tail 3.35-3.60; bill 0.45; tarsus 0.90. Rocky Mt. 

 region, chiefly, but noted from Kansas to CaUfomia. 



386. I*, i. megarhyn'cha. (Gr. ntyas, megas, great ; pvyxoi, rhugclios, rhynchus, beak.) Large- 

 billed Fox Spaeeow. Coloration as in P. schistacea. Tail at maximum length, averaging 

 at the extreme of that of scMstacea; claws and beak very highly developed ; bill very thick, its 

 depth at base 0.50, rather more than its length from nostril to tip; hind claw longer than its 

 digit. A local race of the last, in the mountains of CaUfomia and Nevada. 



87. CALiAMOSPI'ZA. (Gr. KoKaixos, Jcalamos, Lat. calamus, a reed ; o-Trifa, spiza, a finch.) Lake 

 Buntings. Bill large and stout at base, the culmen a little curved, the commissure well 

 angulated ; rictus bristly. Wing long and pointed : tip formed by the lst-4th quills, rest 

 rapidly graduated ; inner secondaries enlarged and flowing, one of them about reaching the 

 point of the vring when closed. Tail shorter than wing, nearly even. Feet stout, adapted to 

 terrestrial habits ; tarsus about as long as middle toe and claw ; lateral toes nearly equal to each 

 other, scarcely reaching the base of the middle claw; hind claw about as long as its digit, but not. 

 straightened. A well-marked genus, vrith wing-structure reminding one of Anthus or Alauda; 

 the turgid strongly-angulated bill resembles that of a grosbeak. Sexes very dissimilar; ^ 

 black and white. 



