126 
FRINGILLA GRAMMACA. 
GENUS XIV.— FRINGILLA. 
28 . FRINGILLA GRAMMACA. LARK FINCH. 
BONAPARTE, PLATE V. FIG. III. 
For this very interesting 1 new species, Ornithology 
is again indebted to Long’s expedition, and particularly 
to Say, who gave it the name we have adopted, and 
informs us, in his notes, that many of these birds were 
shot in the month of June, at Bellefontaine, on the 
Missouri ; and others were observed, the following 
spring, at Engineer Cantonment, near Council Bluffs. 
It seems probable that the range of this bird is 
limited, in a great measure, by the Mississippi on the 
east. Like the larks, they frequent the prairies, and 
very seldom, if ever, alight on trees. They sing sweetly, 
and often continue their notes while on the wing. 
The lark finch is six inches and a half long; its bill, 
a little notched at tip, is of a pale horn colour, with a 
slight elevation on the roof of the upper mandible. The 
feet are pale flax colour, tinged with orange ; the irides 
are dark brown. On the top of the head are two dilated 
lines, blackish on the front, and passing into ferruginous 
on the crown and hind head, separated from each other 
by a whitish cinereous line ; from the eye to the superior 
mandible is a black line, which, as well as the eye, is 
enclosed by a dilated white line, contracted behind the 
eye ; from the angle of the mouth proceeds a black 
line, which is much dilated into a ferruginous spot on 
the auricles ; below this is a broad white line, margined 
beneath by a narrow black one, originating at the 
inferior base of the lower mandible ; the chin and throat 
are pure white. The neck above, the back, and rump, 
are dull cinereous brown, each feather of the intersca- 
pular region having a blackish brown disk ; the neck 
beneath and breast, are dull whitish cinereous ; a small 
blackish brown spot is on the middle of the breast; the 
belly and vent are white. The wdngs are dusky brown ; 
the lesser winof-coverts are margined with dull cinereous ; 
