208 ARKANSAW SISKIN. 
ARKANSAW SISKIN. (fringilla psaltaria.) 
PLATE VI.—Fie. 3. 
Fringilla psaltaria, Say, in Long’s Exped. ii. p. 40.—Phil. Museum, No. 6278. 
See note, vol. i. pp. 12 and 15. 
CARDUELIS PSALTARIA.—BONAPARTE. 
Fringilla (subgen. Carduelis) psaltaria, Bonap. Synop. p. 111. 
“A very pretty little bird,” writes Say, in his precious zoolo- 
gical notes to the Journal of Long’s Expedition, “was fre- 
quently seen hopping about in the low trees or bushes, singing 
sweetly, somewhat in the manner of the American goldfinch 
or hempbird, Fringilla tristis. ‘The tints, and the distribution 
of the colours of its plumage, resemble in a considerable de- 
cree those of the autumnal and less brilliant vesture of that 
well-known species. It may, however, be distinguished, in 
addition to other differences, by the black tip of its tail-feathers 
and the white wing spot.” 
The Arkansaw siskin inhabits the country near the base of 
the Rocky Mountains, south of the river Platte, and probably 
is also to be found in Mexico. The only specimen brought 
by the party was shot on the 16th of July, near Boiling Spring 
Creek : on the annexed plate, it is figured in company with 
the American goldfinch in autumnal plumage, for the sake of 
comparison. 
The Arkansaw siskin is four inches and a quarter long; the 
bill is yellowish, tipped with blackish; the feet are flesh 
colour ; the irides, burnt umber. The top of the head is blue 
black ; the cheeks are dusky olivaceous ; the neck above, and 
half its side, the back and rump, are olivaceous, more or less 
intermixed with dusky and yellowish, particularly on the 
rump ; the superior tail-coverts are black, varied with oliva- 
ceous ; all the under parts, from the very base of the bill to the 
under tail-coverts inclusively, are of a pure bright yellow. 
The wings are brownish black, the smaller wing-coverts being 
very slightly tinged with blue, and edged with olivaceous ; the 
