FRINGILLID^ : FINCHES, BUNTINGS, SPABROWS, ETC, 385 
white ; a black line through eye, and another helow eye, enclosing a white streak under the 
eye and the chestnut auriculars ; next, a sharp black maxillary stripe not quite reaching the 
bill, cutting olf a white stripe from the white chin and throat. A black blotch on middle of 
breast. Under parts white, faintly shaded with grayish-brown ; upper parts grayish-brown, 
the middle of the back with fine black streaks. Tail very long, its central feathers like the 
back, the rest jet-black, broadly tipped with pure white in diminishing amount from the lateral 
pair inward, and the outer web of the outer pair entirely white. Length 6.50-7.00; wing 
3.50, pointed; tail 3.00, rounded. Very young : Crown, back, and nearly all the under parts 
streaked with dusky ; no chestnut on head, nor are the black stripes firm ; but with the first 
moult the peculiar pattern of the head-markings becomes evident, and there is little variation 
afterward with age, sex, or season. A beautiful species, abundant from the eastern edge of 
the prairies, and even Iowa and Illinois, to the Pacific, U. S. ; occasional in Ohio, and strag- 
glers have been taken in Massachusetts and about Washington. A sweet songster ; breeds 
throughout its range ; nest usually on the ground, of dried grass ; eggs 4-7, white, with strag- 
gling zigzag dark lines, as in many Icteridce; size 0.75-0.85 by about 0.65. 
86. PASSEREL'LA. (Ital. diminutive form of Lat. passer, a sparrow.) Fox Sparrow^s. 
Remarkable for the size of the feet and claws : Lateral toes elongated to about equal degree, 
the ends of their claws reaching about half-way to the end of the middle 
claw ; claws all very large ; middle toe and claw about as long as the tarsus. 
Wings long and pointed, folding about to the middle of the tail ; point 
formed by the 2d-4th quills, 1st and 5th little shorter. Tail moderate, a 
little rounded or nearly even. Bill rather small, strictly conic, with straight 
outlines and scarcely angulated commissure. Large handsome reddish or 
slate-colored species, marked below with triangular spots and streaks of 
the color of the back. Habits terrestrial and somewhat rasorial. Nest \ 
indiff'erently in trees or bushes or on the ground; eggs greenish, fully Fig. 244. —Bill of 
speckled. The species, if more than one, are, like those oi Junco, Melospiza, Fox Sparrow, nat. 
and Pipilo, still imperfectly dififerentiated. 
382. P. ili'aca. (Lat. iliaca, relating to the ilia, or flanks, which are conspicuously marked; Figs. 
244,245.) Eastern Fox Sparrow. $,9' General color above ferrugineous or rusty-red, 
purest and brightest on the rump, tail, and wings, on the other upper parts appearing in streaks 
laid on an ashy ground. Below, white, variously but thickly marked except on the belly and 
crissum with rusty-red — the markings anteriorly in the form of diffuse confluent blotches, on 
the breast and sides consisting chiefly of sharp aiTOw-head spots and pointed streaks. Tips of 
middle and greater wing-coverts forming two whitish bars. Upper mandible dark, lower 
mostly yellow; feet pale. One of the finest singers of the family; quite unlike any other Eastern 
species of sparrow. A large handsome species. Length 6.50-7-25 ; extent 10.50-11.50 ; wing 
3.25-3.60, averaging 3.40; tail little or not over 3.00, thus decidedly shorter than the wing; 
bill, along culmen, 0.40; tarsus 0.90; hind claw about 0.35. Sexes alike, and young not 
particularly difi'erent after the first moult, though in an early stage much darker ; back rufous- 
brown with darker streaks ; no wing-bars ; all the under parts heavily marked. There is 
much individual variation in color, independently of age, sex, or season. Eastern N. Am. ; 
W. in the U. S. regularly only to the edge of the Plains, occasionally to Colorado; but in 
Alaska to the Pacific; N. to the Arctic coast. Breeds throughout the interior of British 
America and in Alaska ; not known to do so anywhere in the U. S. Winters from the Middle 
States southward. Nest on ground or in bushes or trees ; eggs pale greenish-white, thickly 
speckled with rusty-brown, 0.95 X 0.70; general aspect of the egg as in Zonotrichia and 
Melospiza. 
283. P. i. unalascen'sis. (Of the Island of Unalashka.) Townsend's Fox Sparrow. 9 ' 
General color above dark olive-brown, overcast with a reddish-brown tinge, and the streaking 
25 
