BIEDS — FRINGILL1DAE MELOSPIZA MELODIA. 
477 
Prevailing color above olivaceous gray. Stripes of breast purer black, with little 
or no rufous suffusion externally. Wing 2.50 inches heermanni. 
Similar to the last but much smaller. Wing 2.10 inches Var. gouldii. 
Streaks above and below dark rufous, without black centres. Bill slender. 
Above decidedly rufous brown, the streaks very obsolete, without gray edges. 
Beneath thickly streaked rufina. 
Above brownish gray. Streaks distinct ; feathers with gray edging. Beneath 
rather sparsely streaked , .fallax. 
Helospiza, Baird. 
B. Under parts white ; breast reddish yellow, with distinct, well defined streaks. Head 
streaked Uneolnii. 
G. Head above uniform reddish. Beneath white, without streaks, or with very obsolete ones, 
except on sides of breast. Breast tinged with plumbeous .palustris. 
Comparative measurements of species. 
Species. 
Locality. 
Length. 
Stretch of 
wings. 
Tail. 
EH 
Middle toe. 
lis claw 
Hind toe 
and claw. 
Hind claw 
alone. 
Bill above. 
Along gape. 
Specimen 
measured. 
Melospiza meloiiia ... 
Boston, Mass 
9 
6.42 
5.70 
6.08 
5.20 
6.16 
6.40 
5.00 
4.70 
6.46 
5.50 
5.26 
5.66 
5.30 
5.50 
5.24 
5.58 
4.84 
2.62 
2.50 
2.43 
2.68 
2.75 
2.60 
2.54 
2.42 
2.10 
2.76 
2.71 
2.42 
2.20 
3.08 
2.76 
0.83 
0.80 
0.85 
0.20 
0.23 
0.54 
0.58 
0.26 
0.28 
0.47 
0.44 
0.45 
0.50 
8.33 
Fresh 
::::::::::::::::::::::::: 
<J 
2.88 
0.80 
0.77 
0.20 
0.56 
0.26 
0.48 
0.54 
Skin 
8.84 
9 
3 
3 
3 
2.93 
2.94 
2.78 
2.38 
3.18 
3.24 
2.54 
0.89 
0.92 
0.79 
0.78 
0.86 
0.82 
0.83 
0.87 
0.78 
0.82 
0.20 
0.23 
0.24 
0.18 
0.20 
0.22 
0.18 
0.60 
0.66 
9.64 
0.54 
0.58 
0.62 
0.30 
0.30 
0.31 
0.26 
0.28 
0.26 
0.28 
0.47 
0.49 
0.44 
0.44 
0.40 
0.44 
0.44 
0.51 
0.50 
0.51 
0.50 
0.44 
0.46 
0.47 
Melospizalieermanni. 
Skin 
Melospiza gouldii.... 
California 
Camp 106, Pueblo cr., N.M. 
Mimbrea to Rio Grande .. 
Melospiza palustris. .. 
Skin.. 
8 93 
9? 
2.41 
0.79 
0.74 
0.17 
0.56 
0.25 
0.41 
0.44 
9.50 
3 
2.58 
2.34 
2.33 
2.42 
0.76 
0.82 
0.20 
0.26 
0.44 
0.48 
8.35 
9 
2.32 
0.80 
0.74 
0.18 
0 52 
0.25 0.43 
0.48 
5.57 
8.00 
Fresh .... 
6227 
10274 
MELOSPIZA MELODIA, Baird. 
Song spairow. 
Fringilla melodia, Wilson, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 125 ; pi. xvi, f. 4.— Licht. Veiz. 1833, No. 249.— Aud. Orn. Biog. 
I, 1832, 126 : V, 507 ; pi 25.— In. Syn. 1839, 120.— Ib. Birds Amer. Ill, 1841, 147 ; pi. 189. 
Zonotrichia melodia, Bon. List, 1838.— Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 478. 
?? Fringilla fasciata,' Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 922.— Nuttall, Man. I, 2d ed. 1840, 562. 
?? Fringilla hyemalis, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 922. 
Sp. Ch.— General tint of upper parts rufous brown, streaked with dark brown and ashy gray. The crown is rufous, with a 
superciliary and median stripe of dull gray, the former lighter; nearly white anteriorly, where it has a faint shade of yellow ; each 
feather of the crown with a narrow streak of dark brown. Interscapulars dark brown in the centre, then rufous, then grayish 
1 The fasciated sparroiv of Pennant, Arctic Zool. II, 375, upon which Gmelin's name is based, answers pretty well for our 
species, but the tail is said to be crossed by numerous dusky bars, which is not the case with melodia. The winter sparrow of 
Pennant, II, 376, Fringilla hyemalis, Gmelin, is equally uncertain. 
