438 
U. S, P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS — ZOOLOGY GENERAL REPORT. 
no white at its base ; the next has the outer web and tip brown ; in all the rest the whole 
feather is white, the terminal half, or three quarters of an inch, alone being brown, this color 
extending furthest back on the outer web. 
A female specimen agrees in the characters of bill and tail. The black crown and pectoral 
crescent, with the chestnut shoulders, are wanting. The whole upper parts are brownish yellow, 
streaked with darker. There is a short maxillary stripe of brown dots. The chin, throat, and 
upper part of the breast are tinged in places with brownish. There are no brown streaks on 
the breast. 
The combination of the black pectoral crescent and crown, with the absence of a chestnut 
collar, and the chestnut shoulders will readily distinguish this species from any other. The 
female will be best known by the stout bill and transverse outline of the white on the tail feathers. 
The Plectrophanes maccownii is quite different from the other species of the genus in the 
enormously large bill and much shorter hind claw, so much so, in fact, that Bonaparte places it 
in an entirely different family. As, however, many of the characteristics are those of Plectro- 
phanes, and the general coloration especially so, I see no objection to keeping it in this genus 
for the present. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
Locality. 
When col- 
lected. 
Whence ohtaineil. 
Orig'l 
No. 
Collected by— 
Length. 
Stretch 
of wings. 
Wing. 
Remarks. 
5039 
6282 
3 
Capt. J. Pope.... 
179 
6.25 
11.50 
3.50 
Bill light br'n, eyes gray, ft 
reddisli gray,gtims yellow. 
S 
6283 
6284 
9 
Dr. T. C. Henry. 
6288 
8 

8237 
8954 
8955 
40 miles west of Fort 
Kearney. 
Oct. 19, 1857 
Sept. 29, 1857 
Sept. 20, 1857 
Ho 
Win. M. Magraw. 
Lt. Warren,U S.A. 
219 
Dr. Hayden.... 
6.25 
5.12 
11.50 
11.75 
3.75 
3.50 
Iris brown, bill brown and 
white, feet dark brown. 
6.00 
11.75 
3.50 
ilo 
6.50 
12.00 
3.75 
Sub-Family SPIZELLINAE. 
Cn. — Bill variable, usually almost straight ; sometimes curved. Commissure generally nearly straight, or slightly concave. 
Upper mandible widsr than lower. Nostrils exposed. Wings moderate ; the outer primaries not much rounded. Tail variable. 
Feet large ; tarsi mostly longer than the middle toe. 
The species are usually small, and of dull color. Nearly all are streaked on the back and 
crown ; often on the belly. None of the United States species have any red, blue, or orange, 
and the yellow, when present, is as a superciliary streak, or on the elbow edge of the wing. 
In the arrangement of this sub-family, as of the others belonging to the Fringillidae, I do 
not profess to give anything like a natural system. The species belonging to it at my com- 
mand are too few, and my knowledge of exotic forms too limited to permit anything more than 
an attempt at a convenient artificial scheme by which the determination of the genera may be 
facilitated. 
A. — Tail small and short ; wings considerably or decidedly longer than the tail, owing either 
to the elongation of the wing or the shortening of the tail. Lateral toes shorter than the middle, 
without its claw. Species streaked above and below. 
