514 
GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 
A smaller variety of this bird sometimes is seen in whole compa-- 
nies. The usual length is about 5| inches. Upon the flanks and 
inferior coverts of the tail are some longitudinal blackish spots. 
Wings and tail black, the quills edged with greyish rufous ; the 
former with two transverse bands. Bill yellow ; black at the point. 
Feet brown. In the female only part of the crown is carmine. 
Subgenus ■ — Fringilla. 
Bill short and thick, somewhat narrower than the head, almost 
perfectly conic. 
FERRUGINOUS FINCH. 
(Fringilla iliaca , Merrem. Lath^ F. rufa, Wilson, iii. p. 53. pi. 
22. fig. 4. Phil. Museum, No. 6092.) 
Sp.Charact. — Varied with reddish-brown and grey; beneath white, 
largely spotted with bright bay and dusky; tail and coverts 
bright ferruginous. 
This large and handsome Sparrow, after passing the 
summer and breeding-season in the northern regions of 
the continent around Hudson’s Bay, and farther north 
and west perhaps to the shores of the Pacific, visits us in 
straggling parties or pairs from the middle of October to 
November. At this time it frequents low, sheltered 
thickets in moist and watery situations, where they usu- 
ally descend to the ground, and, like the next species, are 
busily employed in scratching up the earth and rustling 
among the fallen leaves in quest of seeds, worms, and 
insects, but more particularly the last. They migrate 
in a desultory manner, and sometimes arrive as far south 
as Georgia, passing the winter in the Southern States, 
and retiring early in the spring to their favorite boreal 
retreats. They are silent, rather tame, and unsus- 
picious ; when alarmed or separated, their call is simply 
shep, shep ; yet, at times, in the spring, a little before 
their departure, they whisper forth a few low and sweet 
notes, indicative of the existence of vocal powers in the 
pairing season. 
