342 
SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PASSEEES— OSCINES. 
Inner secondaries not enlarged ; wing decidedly longer than tail. 
Edge of wing and loral spot ijellow ; breast buff; wing under 2.50. (Eastern.) 
Cotumiculus 77 
"With yelloio on breast, edge of wing, over eye; hlack throat-patch or stripes. 
(Eastern.) Spiza 88 
No yellow ; head striped with black, white, and chestnut ; tail black, white-tipped. 
(Western.) Chondestes . %5 
No yellow ; wings w^i^e-ftarrefZ; throat black, cf. {Imported.) Passer 64 
Inner secondaries not enlarged ; wing not, or not decidedly, longer than tail. 
Tail-feathers — very acute ; bill — very slender. (Eastern, chiefly maritime. ) 
Ammodramus 78 
— Yerj stout. (Eastern, interior.) . .Cotumiculus 77 
— not acute ; tail — /orZ;erf. Length 6.00 or less; no yellow on wing. 
(N. Am.) Spizella 83 
— rounded — black; edge of wing yellowish. (West- 
ern.) Amphispiza 81 
— not black. —Streaked below, or crown 
chestnut. (N.Am.). . Melospiza 79 
— not streaked below. (S. 
and W. U. S.) . Peuccea 80 
or (N. Am.) Zonotrichia 84 
%* The commonest " sparrows" of Eastern U. S., which the student will be most likely to find first, belong 
to the genera Passer, Spizella, Melospiza, Zonotrichia, Passerella, Passerculus, Pooecetes, Cotumiculus (these 
anywhere); Ammodramus (marshes only); common but more distinguished fringillines are Carpodacus, Astra- 
galinus, Chrysomitris, Passerina, Spiza, Pijnlo, and Cardinalis. "Winter visitors, in flocks, are Loxia, Pinicola, 
Plectrophanes, Centrophanes, jEgiothus, and Junco. 
61. HESPEROPHO'NA. (Gr. ia-irepa, Hesperus, place of sunset; ^cov^, voice.) American 
Ha"WFINCHES. Bill enormously large, vaulted, nearly as wide as high at base ; culmen nearly 
straight to the decurved end ; commissure curved without obvious angulation gonys very long, 
and mandibular rami short, not reaching back of 
base of upper mandible ; mandibles of equal thick- 
ness, lower not so deep as upper ; lateral outlines of 
bill converging straight to tip. Nasal fossae ex- 
tremely short and broad ; nostrils slightly overhung 
by antrorse plumulae. Wings long, pointed, folding 
beyond middle of tail, pointed by first two primaries, 
the rest rapidly graduated ; no peculiar shape of 
inner primaries or outer secondaries. Tail rather 
short, emarginate, with long coverts, the under 
reaching nearly to the forking. Feet small and 
weak; tarsus shorter than middle toe without 
claw ; lateral toes of about equal lengths, their claws 
reaching only to base of middle claw. Coloration 
Fig. 206. - Evening Grosbeak, reduced. black, white, and yellow. Sexes dissimilar. Little 
(Sheppard del. Nichols sc.) different from Old World Coccothraustes, excepting 
coloration and simplicity of wing-quills. 
189. H. vesperti/na. (Lat. vespertina, of Hesperus. Fig. 206.) Evening Grosbeak. Adult 
$ : Greneral color sordid yellow, overlaid with a sooty-olive shade, deepest on fore parts, quite 
black on crown, clearest below behind. Forehead and line over eye, scapulars, and rump, 
yellow. Wings and tail black ; several inner secondaries and inner half of the greater coverts 
white ; lining of wings black and yellow. A narrow black line around base of upper man- 
dible ; tibiae black. Bill greenish-yellow ; feet apparently dusky flesh-color. Length 
7.50-8.50 ; wing 4.00-4.50 ; tail 2.50-3.00 ; bill 0.75 long, 0.67 deep, 0.60 broad. 9 : 
Brownish-ash, paler below, whitening on belly, irregularly patched or mixed with yellowish; 
white of wings imperfect, or tinged with yellow ; primaries, which are quite black in J, with 
