CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ALASKA. 169 



It is very plentiful along the Yukon River, especially at Nulato, Anvik, and Fort Yukon. 



The specimens were all obtained from one or the other of those places. 



The fresh specimens that came to me in a frozen condition presented the following coloration : 

 Bill dark ; tarsus, toes, and claws darker ; iris black. 



It feeds on seeds ; preferably those from the cones of the spruce. 



I observed several individuals of this species among the scattered clumps of spruce trees at a 

 few miles from Nushagak, on the river of that name flowing into the head of Bristol Bay. 

 516. Pyrrhula cassini (Baird). Gassings Bullfinch. [See Plate VIL] 



(Dr. L. Stejneger has kindly furnished me, in February, 1882, the following remarks upon the 

 status of the present species) : 



" Prof. S. F. Baird's Pyrrhula coccinea var. cassini (Trans. Chicago Acad. I, 1868, p. 316), has 

 been the subject of several interpretations. 



Mr. Tristram (Ibis, 1871, p. 231) considers it to be entitled to specific rank, while other authors 

 regard it as belonging either to Pyrrhula cineracea Cab. or to P major Brehm (= coccinea De Selys). 



It would, therefore, be interesting to know to which species this only American specimen 

 should be referred. 



I have minutely examined Professor Baird's type, which is deposited in the collection of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 



The specimen is not in the best condition, the outermost tail feather on one side and th e 

 innermost remex on one wing being lost. 



It appears from examination (as also Mr. Dybowsky and Professor Cabanis, Jour, fiir Ornith., 

 1874, p. 40, have concluded before me) that the American specimen is afemale. That the specimen is 

 labeled as an adult male is in all probability founded on error which should not mislead us. It is 

 not the first instance that the label has given erroneous information concerning the sex. 



Measurements of the specimen give: Culmen, .40 ; wing, 3.75; tail, 2.85; tarsus, .74; mid- 

 dle toe, .48 inch. 



Forehead and top of head lustrous blue-black, this black extending as a narrow line entirely 

 round base of lower mandible and expanding to about three times its width between the rami of 

 the lower mandible. The tail, including the upper coverts, is lustrous blue-black above and slate- 

 black below. Wings slaty on the remiges, becoming the color of the tail on the tertials. The 

 outer web of the first primary is gray, with slightest tinge of red. The primary coverts are dark 

 ash and are thus quite conspicuous. The greater wing-coverts are broadly edged with bluish- 

 black and broadly tipped with grayish- white. Nape, back, scapulars, lesser and middle wing-cov- 

 erts uniform cinereous. Rump and lower tail-coverts pure white. The lower parts reddish-gray, 

 becoming decidedly vinaceons on the flanks. The auriculars tinged with red. Bill brownish-black; 

 tarsi brown ; toes darker. 



The specimen in question is neither a male of P. major nor cineracea nor griseiventris Lafrsn. 



If it be a male it would be quite a new species, of which the male would be almost precisely 

 like the female of cineracea, as I propose to show below. 



When we shall decide on this case we prefer without hesitation the first alternative as being 

 the most natural and probable one. 



The under parts are of the same color, excepting a somewhat purer gray than the same sex of 

 the Great European Bullfinch, P. major. The color of the back is pure cinereous, without the 

 brownish wash of P. major. The white of the rump embraces an area in width of .9 inches (22 

 mm.). The outer web of the first primary has an edge of gray. The length of the tail-feather are 

 2.85 inches (72 mm.).* 



In some of these particulars, which the specimen examined has in common with the female or 

 P. major, it difters from P. cineracea in which the white of the rump embraces an area of 1.38 inches 

 (34 mm.), while the light border on the outer primary is nearly always wanting. The first primary, 



* ' ' Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, in Hist. N. A. B. , I, p. 457, give the length of the tail as 3.25 inches (82 ram. ). The 

 difference of the length arises from the different manner of measurement. I myself (as does Mr. Dybowsky) measure 

 the tail-feathers from the base of the quills at their insertion and not, as in the work mentioned above, 'from the 

 coccyx inside the skin.' " 



S. Mis. 155 22 



