Specimens of the var. holbölli have been received from Quebec, collected by Mr. W. Couper.

Habits. Accepting as variations due either to locality, latitude, or season the differences already referred to in the plumage of this species, it is not necessary to consider the question of races in connection with our story of their habits. We possess but very little information as to their peculiarities as races in these respects. Treating, then, the Lesser Red-Poll, though appearing in four differing phases, as one species, we claim it to be common to the northern portions of both hemispheres.

It is found throughout northern North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is abundant in the boreal regions of Europe, and probably of Asia also. On the Pacific coast, Dr. Cooper has observed it only as far south as Washington Territory. Farther north it is much more abundant. Mr. Bannister found it common at St. Michaels, both in summer and in winter. At Nulato Mr. Dall found this species very common in winter, and very little less so in summer. He states that the nest is usually lined with hair, and covered externally with moss, dry grass, and like materials, built in bushes, near the ground. They begin to build the 15th of May. The eggs are laid about the 1st of June, and the young are flying near the end of July. The young of the first year are dark, with a small patch of brown on the breast. After their second year the males increase the amount of rose-color on the head and breast, and the very old birds are quite brilliant in the breeding-season. At St. Michaels, where there are no trees and very few bushes; these birds frequently build their nests in the grass.

Mr. Dall states that this bird has no song, but that their cheerful twittering and chirping, their fearless and sociable ways, their bright plumage and elegant nests, are quite enough to make them general favorites.

Richardson found this neat and hardy little bird one of the few permanent residents of the fur countries, where it was seen, in the coldest weather, on the banks of lakes and rivers, hopping among the reeds or clinging to their stalks.

Holböll states that this species is found irregularly distributed over Greenland, coming always in the first half of April, a little later than the Snow-Bunting. It migrates to Greenland from America, and is much rarer in Iceland. In June it is found nesting near the shore, and, contrary to the usual nature of birds, is very wild, though at all times else it is very fearless. At this time the male loses its beautiful crimson breast, resembles the female, and is much less gorgeous than in winter. It nests in birches, alders, or willows, and lays five bluish-white eggs, spotted with clear brown. Towards the end of August and in September they are seen in small flocks about the settlements, the male resuming its red breast, and all, both old and young, being very fearless. In confinement they soon became very tame, and in a few days would perch upon his hand and struggle with each other for the hemp-seed that he held to them, though there was plenty of food in their cage. They feed on seeds and the tops of lichens. By October they all disappear, and are not seen in Greenland in the winter.

Wilson states that, in his day, these birds were very common in Northwestern New York, where they appeared always with the first deep snow, and were, on that account, called Snow-Birds. In severe winters they were occasionally, though very rarely, seen in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, where they were very fond of the seeds of the common alder, and hung head downwards while feeding, in the manner of our Goldfinch. They were very unsuspicious, and permitted a near approach without manifesting any signs of alarm. Mr. Ord, in a subsequent edition of Wilson, states that these birds rarely visit Philadelphia, and that it was many years before he could procure specimens. In the winter of 1813-14 they appeared in a flock of nearly a hundred, and were so intent in feeding upon the seeds of the Atriplex hastata that they could be closely approached. Their call exactly resembled that of the Goldfinch. These birds lingered in that neighborhood until about the middle of April.

Mr. Boardman speaks of them as common at Calais by the first of the winter. At Norway, Me., Professor Verrill found them very common in fall, winter, and spring, and most abundant in March and April. In Springfield they are, according to Mr. Allen, an irregular and occasional visitant, coming in very large flocks one year, and again not seen for several years. In a more recent paper (1870) Mr. Allen states that during the preceding five years these birds have been several times very numerous in Massachusetts, appearing in quite large flocks.

Mr. Audubon met with these birds in Labrador the last of July, and obtained specimens of different ages. He thinks their notes more like those of the Siskin of Europe than of our Goldfinch, uttered both when the birds are on the wing and when they have alighted. They were in small parties of seven or eight, evidently members of the same family. They were tame and familiar, and fearlessly returned to the same spot after having been shot at. They were also remarkably affectionate, and he frequently observed them passing seeds one to the other in the most loving manner.

Dr. Coues also observed this bird in Labrador, and described it as Æ. fuscescens. He found it abundant along the coast, and was struck with its resemblance, in habits, to the Chrysomitris tristis. It was remarkably unsuspicious and familiar, and showed no signs of fear even when very closely approached. It frequented, almost exclusively, the scrubby junipers that grow everywhere in open places in thick impenetrable patches. He describes its flight as irregular, rising and falling in curves, and seldom protracted to any great distance. While passing overhead, it uttered a peculiar rattling chirp. He thinks it has no song.

Dr. Kirtland informs me that early in the winter of 1868 his grandson picked up a wing-broken male Red-Poll, and placed it in his greenhouse. It began at once to feed on crumbs of bread and hay-seed, and rapidly recovered. It soon acquired the habit of leaping from shelf to shelf, among the plants, and was finally seen climbing up some stately Pelargonium shrubs, and suspending itself, parrot-like, by its feet from the limbs, capturing aphides. From that time it took no other food, living exclusively on the parasitic insects of the plants. So active was it in capturing these, that for two months it was not necessary to fumigate the greenhouse to destroy them. From day to day a female Red-Poll hovered over the building, and her calls were responded to by the invalid. Later in the season he escaped from his confinement, and was seen to rejoin his faithful mate, which had remained near him all the winter. As in Europe, this species in the Arctic regions of America has been found nesting in low trees and bushes, from two to six feet from the ground.

American eggs of this species average .65 by .53 of an inch. Their color is a light bluish-white, which varies considerably in the depth of its shading, and this tinge is exceedingly fugitive, it being difficult to preserve it even in a cabinet. The eggs are generally and finely dotted with a rusty-brown, and are of a rather rounded oval shape.

Ægiothus canescens, Cabanis.

MEALY RED-POLL.

Linaria canescens, Gould, “Birds Europe, pl. cxciii.” Linota canescens, Bonap. List, 1838. Acanthis canescens, Bon. Conspectus, 1850, 541.—Bon. & Schlegel, Mon. Loxiens, 1850, 47, tab. li.—Ross, ed. Phil. Jour. 1861, 163. Ægiothus canescens, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851, 161.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 429.—Coues, P. A. N. S. 1861, 388.—Samuels, 295. “Fringilla borealis, Temminck, 1835. Not of Vieillot.” Bonaparte. ? Fringilla borealis, Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 87, pl. cccc. ? Linaria borealis, Aud. Birds Am. III, 1841, 120, pl. clxxviii. “Linaria hornemanni, Holböll, Kroyer Nat. Tidskr. 1843.” Ægiothus exilipes, Coues, Pr. A. N. Sc. Nov. 1861, 385.—Elliot, Illust. N. Am. Birds, I, pl. ix.

Hab. Greenland. Variations with season probably as in smaller Continental race.

Adult of both sexes in spring. Continental race (exilipes). As described for the Greenland form, but without the ochraceous suffusion. Sides very sparsely streaked.

Male in spring. Breast only tinged with delicate peach-blossom-pink, this extending farther back medially than laterally,—just the reverse of Æ. linarius; a very faint tinge of the same in the white of the rump. Measurements (No. 19,686, Fort Simpson, April 30, 1860; B. R. Ross, Coues’s type): Wing, 3.00; tail, 2.55; bill, .29 and .25; tarsus, .52; middle toe, .30; wing-formula, 2, 1, 3, 4.

Female in spring. Similar, but lacking all red except that of the pileum, which is less intense, though not more restricted, than in the male. Measurements (No. 19,700, Fort Simpson, April 28; B. R. Ross): Wing, 2.80; tail, 2.35; bill, .25 and .22; tarsus, .51; middle toe, .30.

Both sexes in autumn. (♀, Fort Rae.) The white of the whole plumage, except on the rump, overspread by a wash of pale ochraceous, this deepest anteriorly; on the anterior upper parts a deep tint of ochraceous entirely replacing the white; wing-markings broader and more ochraceous than in the spring plumage. Wing, 2.85; tail, 2.50; bill, .30 and .25; tarsus, .51; middle toe, .30.

Hab. Continental arctic America. In winter south into the United States (as far as Mount Carroll, Illinois).

Though Æ. canescens is nearly identical with Æ. linarius in size, these two species may always be distinguished from each other by certain well-marked and constant differences in coloration; the principal of these have been mentioned in the synoptical table, but a few other points may be noted here. In spring males of canescens the delicate rosaceous-pink of the breast does not extend up on to the cheeks, and backward it extends farther medially than laterally, scarcely tingeing the sides at all; while in Æ. linarius the intensely rosaceous, almost carmine, tint covers the cheeks, and extends backward much farther laterally than medially, covering nearly the whole sides.

Though the weakness, or shortness, of the toes compared with the tarsus, is a feature distinguishing, upon almost microscopical comparison, the Æ. canescens in its two races from the races of Æ. linarius, it will not by any means serve to distinguish canescens and exilipes, since, as will be seen by the measurements given, the proportion of the toes to the tarsus is a specific, and not a race, character. (Ridgway.)

Habits. The history of the Mealy Red-Poll can only be presented with some doubts and uncertainties. We cannot always determine how far the accounts given by others may have belonged to this species, and we can only accept, with some reserve, their statements.

Yarrell thought that sufficient evidence existed of its specific distinctness, but Mr. Gould regarded it as a matter of doubt whether the birds found in Europe were natives, or only arrivals from northern America. He states that among the London dealers this bird, called by them the Stone Red-Poll, is well known, and is considered distinct, but that its occurrence is very rare. Occasionally, at great intervals, they are said to have been abundant.

Mr. Doubleday, of Epping, procured several specimens of this bird in Colchester, in January, 1836, and afterwards obtained a living pair, which he kept for some time. Their notes were much sharper than those of the linarius. Its occurrence was most frequent in winter, many specimens having been obtained in England, and some also in Scotland. Its habits throughout the year are supposed to be very similar to those of the common Red-Poll. Its food is said to be chiefly the seeds of various forest trees.

Mr. Temminck describes what is undoubtedly this species, under the title of borealis. If this supposition be admitted to be correct, its geographical distribution becomes much more clearly defined. He states that it is found during the summer in Norway and Sweden, and is resident of the Arctic Circle throughout the year, and is also found in Northern Asia, as well as in America and in other parts of Europe. He has received specimens from Greenland, and also from Japan, differing in no respect from those found in Europe.

Audubon states that he procured four specimens of this bird in Newfoundland. In their habits he could see no difference between them and the common Red-Poll, but did observe a noticeable difference in their song. He also states that one was shot by Mr. Edward Harris near Moorestown, N. J.

Mr. John Wolley, in his expeditions to Lapland, found there only one species of this genus which was clearly referrible to the Mealy Red-Poll, and was a common resident bird. One of these eggs from Lapland is larger, and a much lighter-colored egg, than any of the common linarius. The ground is a greenish-white, sparingly spotted with dark reddish-brown about the larger end. Its measurement is .80 by .58 of an inch. An egg from Greenland is not perceptibly different in size, color, or markings.

In the summer this species is found to the extreme north of Greenland, and has never been known to nest farther south than the 69th parallel. It is more numerous in North Greenland than the linarius, which is rare at the extreme north, while this is very common even at latitude 73°. This bird builds its nests in bushes in the same manner with linarius, and its eggs closely resemble those of that bird. Its notes, he adds, do not at all resemble those of the Red-Poll, but are like those of the Ampelis garrulus.

It is a resident of Greenland throughout the year, and in the winter keeps on the mountains in the interior, but is much more numerous at latitude 66° than farther south. In February, 1826, Holböll saw many flocks on the mountains between Ritenbank and Omanak, and in the journey taken in 1830 by a merchant from Holsteinborg into the interior of the country a great many flocks were observed. They are also frequently met with by reindeer-hunters, who go far into the interior. It is rarely found in South Greenland at any time, and never in the summer. In mild winters they sometimes come about the settlements, as happened in the winter of 1828-29, and again in 1837-38. In the intervening winters it was not seen at Godhaab, and in severe winters it is never to be found near the coast, only single specimens occurring there in spring and autumn.

Mr. MacFarlane thinks this species spends the winter at Fort Anderson, as he has met with it as late as December and as early as February, and believes it to have been present in the vicinity in the interval. It nests in May. Mr. Harriott found one of its nests on the branch of a tree, about five feet from the ground. It contained five eggs.

The egg of this species resembles that of the linarius except in size and its lighter ground-color. The ground is a bluish or greenish white, dotted with a tawny-brown. The egg is of a more oval shape, and measures .75 by .60 of an inch.

Hab. Massachusetts.

As the present article on Ægiothus is going to press, we have received, through the kindness of Dr. Brewer, a specimen of what appears to be a third species of Ægiothus, allied to the Æ. flavirostris of Europe, obtained in Waltham, Mass., by Mr. William Brewster, of Cambridge. This bird was killed in a flock of Æ. linarius, of which five were also shot at the same discharge. None of the others, nor indeed of any of ninety specimens prepared by Mr. Brewster during the winter, were at all like the present one, which is entirely different from anything we have ever seen from North America.

The relationship of this bird appears to be nearest to the Æ. flavirostris of Europe, with the ♀ of which it agrees in many respects, as distinguished from linarius and canescens. The European bird, however, lacks the sulphur-yellow tinge (which gives it somewhat the appearance of Chrysomitris pinus), has the throat and jugulum strongly reddish-buff, instead of dingy yellowish-white, and is much browner above; besides which the tail is longer and less deeply forked, with narrower feathers.

Habits. Nothing distinctive was observed by Mr. Brewster in regard to the habits of the specimen killed by him.

Genus LEUCOSTICTE, Swainson.

Leucosticte, Swainson, Fauna Bor. Am. II, 1831, 265. (Type, Linaria tephrocotis, Sw.)

This genus differs from Ægiothus in the more obtuse and curved bill, the less development of bristly feathers at the base, the ridge on the lower mandible, the lateral toe not reaching beyond the base of the middle one, and possibly a longer hind toe. Its relationship to the other allies will be found expressed in the synoptical table of Coccothraustinæ.

The number of American species, or at least races, of this genus has been increased considerably since the publication of Birds of North America, five now belonging to the American fauna, instead of the three there mentioned. Of the species usually assigned to the genus, one, L. arctoa, is quite different in form, lacking the ridge of the mandible, etc., and in having the ends of the secondaries graduated in the closed wing, instead of being all on the same line. The colors, too, are normally different; in arctoa being dusky, with silvery-gray wings and tail, without rose tips to the feathers of the posterior part of body; and in Leucosticte proper, the wings and tail being dark-brown narrowly edged with whitish, or more broadly, like the ends of the feathers of the body behind, with rose-color. For the present, however, we shall combine the species, not having before us any American specimens of L. arctoa.

From the regular gradation of each form into the other—the extremes being thus connected by an unbroken chain of intermediate forms—it seems reasonable to consider all the North American forms as referable to one species (L. tephrocotis, Sw., 1831) as geographical races. They may be distinguished as follows:—

Common Characters. Body anteriorly chocolate-brown; posteriorly tinged with rose-red. Wing-coverts (broadly) and quills edged with the same. Head above light ashy or silvery-gray, as are also the feathers around the base of upper mandible; the forehead and a patch on crown blackish. Throat dusky.

Additional Characters. The chocolate-colored feathers and the secondary quills, sometimes the tail-feathers and greater wing-coverts, edged with pale brownish-white or fulvous; the interscapulars with darker centres. Rose of rump and upper tail-coverts in form of transverse bands at end of feathers, that of abdomen more a continuous wash. Lining of wings and axillars white, tinged with rose at ends of feathers. Feathers of crissum dark brown, edged with whitish, sometimes tinged with rose. Bill generally reddish or yellowish, with blackish tip.

1. Whole side of head below the eye, including the auriculars, chocolate-brown. Chin not bordered anteriorly with ash. In the breeding-season, head darker and ash wanting. Wing, 4.35; tail, 3.00; bill, .44; tarsus, .72. Hab. Interior regions of North America. … var. tephrocotis.

2. Cheeks, lores, and anterior border of the chin ash-color. Wing, 4.00; tail, 2.80; bill, .44; tarsus, .70. Hab. Colorado and Wyoming Territories … var. campestris.

B. Auriculars ash-color.

3. Wing, 4.30; tail, 3.00; bill, .40; tarsus (?). Chocolate of the breast, etc., light, exactly as in tephrocotis; rose beneath restricted to the abdomen; lores and chin light ash. Hab. Northwest coast from Kodiak to Fort Simpson, east to Wyoming Territory … var. littoralis.

4. Wing, 4.60; tail, 3.40; bill, .40; tarsus, .78. Chocolate very dark, inclining to sepia; rose extending forward on to the breast; lores blackish; chin dusky gray. Hab. Aleutian Islands (St. George’s, Unalaschka, and Kodiak) … var. griseinucha.

Young. Pattern of coloration as in the adult of L. tephrocotis; ash similarly restricted, but with the black frontal patch badly defined. The brown of the plumage, however, is of an entirely different shade from that of adult specimens of tephrocotis, being of a blackish-sepia cast, much darker, even, than in griseinucha; each feather also broadly bordered terminally with paler, these borders being whitish on the throat and breast, brownish on the nape and back, and light rose (broadly) on the scapulars. The whole abdomen, flanks, and crissum are nearly continuously peach-blossom pink, which, with that of the lesser and middle wing-coverts and rump, is of a finer and brighter tint than in adults. The other edgings to wings are pale ochraceous; under side of wing pure white. Bill dull yellow, dusky toward tip. Wing, 4.20; tail, 3.80. (60,638, Uintah Mountains, Utah, September 20, 1870; Dr. F. V. Hayden.)

The young specimen described was obtained during the summer of 1871 in the Uintah Mountains; and were it not unmistakably a bird of the year, it would be considered almost a distinct species, so different is it from adult specimens of tephrocotis.

Habits. Of the history and habits of this well-marked and strikingly peculiar bird, but little is known. It was first described by Swainson from a single specimen, obtained on the Saskatchewan Plains, in May, by Dr. Richardson’s party. Specimens were afterwards procured in Captain Stansbury’s expedition, near Salt Lake City, Utah, in March, 1850. Dr. Hayden found them very abundant on the Laramie Plains during the winter season, and Mr. Pearsall obtained numbers about Fort Benton. Dr. Cooper has also seen one specimen brought from somewhere east of Lake Tahoe, in Washoe, by Mr. F. Gruber. They were said to be plentiful there in the cold winter of 1861-62. Dr. Cooper thinks it probable that they visit the similar country east of the northern Sierra Nevada, in California.

Nothing has been ascertained, so far as we are now informed, as to its nest, eggs, or general distribution during the breeding-season.

Mr. J. K. Lord states that he met with a flock of these rare and beautiful birds on the summit of the Cascade Mountains. It was late in October, and he observed a flock of nine or ten birds pecking along the ground, and feeding somewhat in the manner of Larks. Puzzled to know what birds they could be at such an altitude so late in the year, he fired among them and secured three, a female and two males in fine plumage. (Perhaps var. littoralis.)

In July of the following summer, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains, near the Kootanie Pass, he again saw these birds feeding on the ground. He shot several, but they were all young birds of the year. It is therefore rendered probable that these Finches breed on the Cascade and Rocky Mountains, in both at about the same altitude, or seven thousand feet, coming into the lowlands during the winter, as it is not likely that they could endure the cold of the summits, or find there a sufficiency of food, the winter being very severe, and the snow three feet, or more in depth.

Mr. Charles N. Holden, a promising young ornithologist of Chicago, who observed these birds among the Black Hills, near Sherman, at an altitude of eight thousand feet above the sea, has furnished me with interesting observations in regard to them. He informs me that he did not meet with these birds there in summer. They came in small flocks in the coldest part of winter. Their food consisted of small seeds and insects. In some instances he found the crops so distended with seeds as to distort their shape. They become very fat, and are excellent eating. In one specimen, a young male, the plumage was almost black, as described at the beginning of this article. These birds were quite numerous, and nearly forty specimens were secured. He was not able to learn anything in reference to their breeding-places. Except by dissection, he found it difficult to distinguish between a young male of the first year and a female.

If the specimen referred to in the foot-note at the beginning of this article as collected by Mr. Allen on Mount Lincoln be really this species, an important advance in its history will have been reached, showing that their summers are spent in the high mountain summits, and that the rest of the year is passed lower down on the plains.

THE GRAY-CHEEKED FINCH.

Leucosticte campestris, Baird, Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 163, 1870.

Sp. Char. Body light chocolate-brown, the feathers edged with paler, those of the back with rather darker centres. Feathers of anal region, flanks behind, crissum, rump, and upper tail-coverts, wing-coverts, and primary quills, edged with rose-red; secondary quills and tail-feathers with pale fulvous; little or no trace of rose on under wings. Forehead and patch on crown blackish; the hind head to nape, cheeks immediately under the eye (but not including the auriculars, except, perhaps, the most anterior) and base of lower mandible all round, ashy-gray. Throat dusky. Bill yellowish, with dusky tip. Legs dusky.

No. 41,527, near Denver City, Col., January, 1862 (Dr. C. Wernigk). Length, 7.00; wing, 4.00; tail, 3.00; exposed portion of first primary, 3.10. Bill from forehead, .60; from nostril, .40; tarsus, .75; middle toe and claw, .80; claw alone .24; hind toe and claw, .80; claw alone, .37.

Hab. Colorado Territory (Dr. Wernigk); Wyoming Territory (Mr. H. R. Durkee).

This form bears a close resemblance to L. tephrocotis, and may, indeed, be a variety of it; but as it differs in the characters that appear generally to be those most constant in Leucosticte, and as, in fifty skins of the tephrocotis from one locality, we have seen nothing like it, we are inclined to consider them distinct. The size and general appearance are much the same, the difference being that in tephrocotis the whole cheeks are chocolate below the level of the eye, the chin without any gray; while in campestris the sides of head below the eye, but not including the ears, with a narrow border of the chin, are of this color.

From littoralis this form may be distinguished by the less extent of ash on the cheeks, which in littoralis covers the whole ears, and extends back farther on the head all round. L. griseinucha is marked like littoralis, and is much larger than either. Possibly it may be well to entertain the idea of its being a hybrid between tephrocotis and littoralis or griseinucha.

The specimen described was presented to the Smithsonian Institution by Dr. Wernigk, and at the time was supposed to be L. tephrocotis.

Of this form, nothing as to its habits is known with certainty. It probably does not differ in any important respect from the allied races.

Leucosticte tephrocotis, var. littoralis, Baird.

HEPBURN’S FINCH.

Leucosticte griseinucha, Elliot, Illust. Birds Am. X. Leucosticte littoralis, Baird, Tr. Ch. A. S. I, 1869, 318, pl. xxviii, f. 1.—Dall & Bannister, Ib. p. 282.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 162.

Hab. Kodiak (Bischoff); Sitka (Bischoff); Fort Simpson, British Columbia (Hepburn); Gilmer, Wyoming (Durkee).

This race, which we believe to be the Southern coast representative of griseinucha, bears much resemblance to that bird, but is considerably smaller; the colors are brighter and lighter, more like those of tephrocotis, and the bill is shorter and more conical, the dark patch on the head more restricted, the chin more ashy, and the brown of the head not so far forward. From tephrocotis it is distinguished by the extension of the ash of head below the eye; and from campestris by having the ear-coverts ashy, instead of the anterior portion of the cheeks only; and there is apparently a greater extent of gray on the chin.

Specimens obtained at Kodiak in February are distinguishable from specimens of griseinucha, obtained with them at the same place, only by their much smaller size, and lighter chocolate tints. The occurrence of both these races at the same place, at the same time, is a subject for speculation. A perfectly typical specimen (No. 59,906) is in the collection from Gilmer, Wyoming Territory, obtained by Mr. H. R. Durkee, a frequent contributor to the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, and sent by him along with numerous specimens of L. tephrocotis, with which it appears to have been mixed.

Leucosticte tephrocotis, var. griseinucha, Baird.

THE GRAY-EARED FINCH.

Passer arctous, var. γ, Pallas, Zoög. Rosso-Asiat. II (1831), 23. Fringilla (Linaria) griseinucha, Brandt, Bull. Acad. St. Petersburg, Nov. 1841, 36. Montifringilla (Leucosticte) griseinucha, Bon. & Schl. Mon. Loxiens (1850), 35, pl. xli. Leucosticte griseinucha, Baird, Birds N. Am. 430.—Kittlitz, Denkwürdigkeiten (1858), I, 291.—Dall & Bannister, Tr. Ch. Ac. Sc. I, 1869, 282.—Baird, Ib. p. 317, pl. xxviii, f. 2.—Elliot, Illust. Am. B. pl. xi.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 161. Leucosticte griseigenys, Gould, Voy. Sulphur.

Sp. Char. Description of specimen No. 54,246: General color dark brownish-chocolate anteriorly, the feathers of back rather darker in the centre, and with paler edges. Forehead and crown black; rest of the head, including the cheeks and ears, of a rather silvery gray; throat blackish, shading off insensibly into the chocolate of breast. Feathers of abdomen (and hinder part of breast to a less degree), flanks and crissum, with the rump and upper tail-coverts, and lesser and middle wing-coverts, tipped with dark pomegranate or rose-red, allowing more or less of thin dusky bases to be seen, especially above, where there is an appearance of bars. Wing and tail feathers brown, nearly all, including the greater wing-coverts, edged with pale yellowish-gray with only a faint tinge of rose. Bill dusky; darkest at tip. Legs black.

Hab. Aleutian Islands (St. George’s and Unalaschka).

This is considerably the largest of the American species of Leucosticte, and has a longer bill. It also has the chocolate and rose color darker, and the rose extending farther forward on the breast than in other species. It could only be confounded with C. littoralis as to color, both having the head above, and on the sides, ashy, covering the whole ear-coverts; but the dusky patch on the crown is more extended, the ash of chin more restricted, and the throat darker. The rose extends farther along the breast, and the tints are different. The size is much larger.

A specimen, apparently young, perhaps a female, differs in duller tints, and a tinge of ochreous-yellow on the middle of the abdomen and crissum. The lining of the wings is without any rose-color.

Bonaparte and Schlegel describe the young of this species as without rose-color.

Specimens of this bird were obtained at St. George’s Island, with the eggs (which are white), by Mr. W. H. Dall. Dr. Minor found it at Unalaschka.

Habits. The Gray-eared Finch is the largest species of this remarkable genus known to inhabit North America. Thus far, except in one instance, it has been met with only in the Aleutian Islands and Unalaschka. In the latter place they were met with by Dr. T. T. Minor, and in the former by Mr. Dall.

Mr. R. Brown (Ibis, 1868, p. 432) states that a single specimen of this very rare bird was taken at Fort Rupert, Vancouver Island, in June, 1862, by Mr. P. M. Compton, the officer in charge of that station. This, however, may have belonged to the var. littoralis.

Mr. Dall states that they abound on the Pribylow and the other Aleutian Islands. A number of specimens were obtained on the St. George’s in August, though at that time they were moulting. At that season this bird had no song except a clear chirp, sounding like wéet-a wèet-a-wée-weet. It was on the wing a great part of the time, rarely alighting on the ground, but darting rapidly in a series of descending and ascending curves. At one time it would swing on the broad top of an umbelliferous plant, and at another alight on some ledge of the perpendicular bluff, jumping from point to point, as if delighting to test its own agility. Mr. Dall adds that its nest is a simple hollow on one of the ledges, provided with a few straws or a bit of moss. They deposit their eggs in May, and these are four in number. In August their young were fully fledged.

They feed on the seeds of grasses and other small plants, but in the crop of one Mr. Dall found two or three small beetles. They were also received from Kodiak, through Mr. Bischoff.

Their eggs are of a grayish-white, with a slight tinge of yellowish, and measure .95 by .70 of an inch.

Plectrophanes, Meyer, “Taschenbuch, 1810.” Agassiz. (Type, Emberiza nivalis.)

Centrophanes, Kaup, “Entw. Gesch. Europ. Thierwelt, 1829.” Agassiz. (Type, E. lapponica.)

Gen. Char. Bill variable; conical; the lower mandible higher than the upper; the sides of both mandibles (in the typical species) guarded by a closely applied brush of stiffened bristly feathers directed forwards, and in the upper jaw concealing the nostrils; the outlines of the bill nearly straight, or slightly curved; the lower jaw considerably broader at the base than the upper, and wider than the gonys is long. Tarsi considerably longer than the middle toe; the lateral toes nearly equal (the inner claw largest), and reaching to the base of the middle claw. The hinder claw very long, moderately curved and acute, considerably longer than its toe; the toe and claw together reaching to the middle of the middle claw, or beyond its tip. Wings very long and much pointed, reaching nearly to the end of the tail; the first quill longest; the others rapidly graduated; the tertiaries a little longer than the secondaries. Tail moderate, about two thirds as long as the wings; nearly even, or slightly emarginated.