386 
SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSEBES — OSCINES. 
obsolete, — thus giving a uniform and continuous ruddy-olive tone, becoming more foxy-red on 
the rump, wings, and tail. Wing-bars obsolete. Beneath, white, thickly marked, excepting 
on the middle of the belly, with triangular spots of about the same dark color as the back, — 
aggregated on the breast, and the entire sides of the neck and body almost like the back in. 
uniformity of the color, but still showing ill- defined confluent dark reddish- brown streaks on a 
more olive-brown ground. Cheeks, 
and auriculars with some whitish 
speckling. No obvious mark- 
ings on wings. Bill dusky above, 
apparently reddish or yellowish 
below ; feet reddish-brown. Size 
of iliaca, but very different-lo(»k- 
ing in color, and somewhat differ- 
ently proportioned ; wing aver- 
aging 3.25, and tail scarcely or 
not shorter; bill about 0.50; 
hind claw the same, and as long 
as its digit. A curious form, re- 
lated to iliaca much as Melospiza 
rufina is to the Eastern song spar- 
row. Pacific coast region, from 
Alaska to California, breeding in 
mountains and northward. (P. 
townsendi Aud. Auct.) 
284. P. i. schista'cea. (Lat. scJiistacea, slaty ; Gr. o-xiaros, scJiistos, fissile or cleft, as slate-stone 
is ; the allusion, however, is to the color.) Slate-colored Fox Sparrow. 9 '■ General 
color above uniform slate with a slight olive tinge, becoming dull foxy-red on the wings and 
tail; the streaking of the back obsolete, but whitish wing bars sometimes indicated. Below, 
white, shaded along the sides with the color of the back, but not so as to obscure the decided 
markings of the parts ; the under parts at large spotted and streaked with dusky-brown, usually 
aggregated into a blotch on the breast. Tliis is the connecting link between iliaca and una- 
lascensis; the upper parts are nearly of the slaty-ash that forms the ground color of iliaca^ 
only the foxy streaks of the back are obsolete. The spotting below is correspondingly darker. 
The form has, however, some peculiarities : tail decidedly longer in comparison with the wings. 
Length about 7-00; wing 3.00-3.25 ; tail 3.35-3.60; bill 0.45 ; tarsus 0.90. Ilocky Mt. 
region, chiefly, but noted from Kansas to California. 
285. P. i. megarhyn'cha. (Gr. /ieyay, megas, great ; pvyxos, rhugcJios, rhynclius, beak.) Large- 
billed Fox Sparrow. Coloration as in P. schistacea. Tail at maximum length, averaging 
at the extreme of that of schistacea; claws and beak very highly developed ; bill very thick, its 
depth at base 0.50, rather more than its length from nostril to tiji; hind claw longer than its 
digit. A local race of the last, in the mountains of California and Nevada. 
87. CALAMOSPI'ZA. (Gr. KoXa^ios, Jcalamos, Lat. calamus, a reed ; o-Tri'^a, sjnza, a finch.) Lark 
Buntings. Bill large and stout at base, the culmen a little curved, the commissure well 
angulated ; rictus bristly. Wing long and pointed : tip formed by the lst-4th quills, rest 
rapidly graduated ; inner secondaries enlarged and flowing, one of them about reaching the 
point of the wing when closed. Tail shorter than wing, nearly even. Feet stout, adapted to 
terrestrial habits; tarsus about as long as middle toe and claw; lateral toes nearly equal to each 
other, scarcely reaching the base of the middle claw; hind claw about as long as its digit, but not 
straightened. A well-marked genus, with wing- structure reminding one of Anthus or Alauda; 
the turgid strongly -angulated biU resembles that of a grosbeak. Sexes very dissimilar; ^ 
black and white. 
Fig. 245. — Fox Sparrow, reduced. (Slieppard del. Nichols sc.) 
