YELLOW-WINGED SPARROW. 239 
YELLOW--WINGED SPARROW.— FRINGILLA PASSERINA — 
Fie. 114. 
Peale’s Museum, No. 6585. 
EMBERIZA? PASSERINA, —Janvine.* 
Fringilla (sub-genus Spiza) passerina, Bonap. Synop. p. 109. 
T urs small species is now for the first time introduced to the notice 
of the public.. I can, however, say little towards illustrating its his- 
tory, which, like that’ of many, individuals of the human race, would 
be but a.dull detail of humble obscurity. It inhabits the lower parts 
of New York and Pennsylvania; is very numerous on Staten Island, 
where‘ first observed it; and occurs also along the sea-coast of New 
Jersey. But, though it breeds in each of these places, it does not re- 
main in,any of them during the winter. It has a short, weak, inter- 
rupted cherup, which it occasionally utters from the fences and tops 
of low bushes. ~ Its nest is fixed on the ground among the grass; is 
formed of loose; dry grass, and lined with hair and fibrous roots of 
plants. The eggs are five, of a-grayish white, sprinkled with brown. 
On the first of August I found the female sitting. ; 
T cannot say what extent of range this species has, having never met 
with it in the Southern States ; though I have no doubt that it winters 
there, with many others of its tribe. It is the scarcest of all our. sum- 
mer Sparrows., Its food consists principally of grass seeds, and the 
larve of insects, which it is almost continually in search of among 
the loose soil and on the surface; consequently it is more useful tc 
the farmer than otherwise. ‘ 
The length of this species is five inches; extent, eight inches ; 
upper part of the’ head, blackish, divided by a slight line of white ; 
hind head and neck above, marked with short lateral touches of black 
and white ; a line of yellow extends from above the: eyé to the nos- 
tril; cheeks, plain brownish white ; back, streaked with black, brown, 
and pale ash; shoulders of the wings, above and below, and lesser 
coverts, olive: yellow; greater wing-coverts, black, edged with pale 
ash ; primaries, light drab ; tail, the same, the feathers rather pointed 
at the ends, the outer ones white; breast, plain yellowish white, or 
pale ochre, which distinguishes it from the Savannah Sparrow, (Fig. 
102) belly and vent, white ; three or four slight touches of dusky at 
the sides of the breast; legs, flesh color; bill, dusky above, pale 
bluish white below. The male and female are nearly alike in color. 
\ , 
* “ A few of these birds,” the Prince of Musignano remarks, “can never h~ 
separated in any natural arrangement.” What are now placed under the name 
Emberiza, will require a sub-genus for themselves, perhaps the analogous form 
of that genus in the New World. In this species we have the palatial knob, and 
converging edges of the mandibles; and, by Bonaparte, it is placed among the 
Finches, in the second section of his sub-genus Spiza, as forming the passage to 
the Buntings. — Ep : 
