254 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[70.] 1. Fringilla (Zonotrichia) graminea. (Swainson.) Bay- 



winged Finch. 



Sub-family, Fringillinae, Swains. Genus, Fringilla, Linn. Sub-genus, Zonotrichia, Swains. 



Grass Finch. Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 375, sp. 253. 



Bay-winged Bunting (Emberiza graminea) . Wilson, iv., p. 51, pi. 31, f. 5. 



Fringilla graminea. Bonap. Syn., p. 108, No. 170. 



The colours of this bird are well adapted for concealment in the short withered 

 grass of the Saskatchewan prairies, which it frequents. It arrives early in May, 

 and departs, to winter in the southern States, in September. It breeds as low 

 down as Pennsylvania, and was not seen by us beyond the fifty-seventh parallel. 

 Its food is chiefly grass-seeds, and its nest is placed on the ground. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a male, killed, May 14, 1827, at Carlton House. 



Colour. — All the upper parts dull, pale greyish-brown, and dark liver-brown, the latter 

 forming a stripe down the shaft of each feather. Ear feathers tinged with pale chestnut. 

 An ill-defined whitish collar crosses the nape. Lesser wing coverts ferruginous, with dark 

 central streaks. Quills and tail liver-brown, with narrow paler edgings ; those of the primaries 

 nearly white. The exterior tail feather is almost totally white, and the next is partly so at 

 its end. Under plumage and inner wing coverts white, marked, on the shoulders, breast, 

 and flanks, with stripes of dark-brown. Bill dark liver-brown above, and yellowish beneath. 

 Legs flesh-coloured. 



Form typical. The first, second, and third primaries nearly equal ; the fourth half a line, 

 and the fifth a line shorter. The secondaries truncated and notched at the end ; the tertiaries 

 long and rather pointed. The tail is somewhat notched, though the lateral feathers are 

 slightly graduated. The lateral toes are equal, and nearly as long as the hind toe : the hind 

 claw is longer than the middle one. 



The female is smaller, but otherwise like the male. 



Dimensions 

 Of the male. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin 



igth total 



. 6 



9 



Length of bill above . 



. 



I 1 



J 2 



Length of middle claw 



. 



3 



„ of tail 



2 



9 



„ of tarsus 



. 



10 



,, of hind toe 



. 



4 



„ of folded wing 



. 3 



3 



„ of middle toe . 



. 



6i 



„ of its claw 



. 



4 



,, of bill from rictus 



. 



6 















