DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Genus Nyctale. Brehm, Handb. Nat. Vog. Deutschlands, p. 111, (1831.)

Size, small. Bill rather weak and almost concealed by projecting plumes at its base, strongly curved and sharp. Wings moderate, rounded, with the third and fourth quills nearly equal and longest; tail moderate, tarsi short, and with the toes densely clothed with hair-like feathers; claws rather long, slender, and very sharp. Type N. Tengmalmii (Gmelin).

Nyctale Kirtlandii. Hoy, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philada., VI. p. 210, (Dec., 1852.)

Form. Small, but compact, wing with the fourth quill slightly longest, tarsi and toes fully feathered, claws slender, sharp.

Dimensions of a skin from Dr. Hoy. Male, total length from tip of bill to end of tail, about 7 inches; wing, 5¼; tail, 3 inches. “Extent of wings, 16 inches,” (Dr. Hoy.) Female, rather larger.

Colors. Male. Head and upper portion of breast, and entire upper parts dark chocolate-brown; front and eye-brows white, and a line of the same color extending downwards from the base of the lower mandible; ear feathers behind the eye darkest; primaries with white spots on their outer margins forming three irregular bars, and with circular spots of white on their inner webs; tail rather darker than the back, narrowly tipped with white, and having two bands composed of spots of white.

Entire under parts of the body, tarsi and toes, reddish-ochre-yellow; bill and claws black, iris-yellow.

Hab. State of Wisconsin. Spec. in Mus. Acad. Philada., and in Dr. Hoy’s coll. Racine, Wisconsin.

Obs. This little Owl is strictly congeneric with Nyctale Harrisii Cassin. Proc. Philada. Acad. IV. p. 157, (Feb. 1849,) and Journal of the same society, Quarto II., plate V., but different in size and color. N. Harrisii is the same as Ciccaba gisella Bonaparte, Cons. Av. p. 44, (1850.)

The present bird also resembles, in some degree, Strix frontalis Lichtenstein, described in a Fauna of California, in Transactions of the Berlin Academy, 1838, p. 430.

EMBERNAGRA BLANDINGIANA.—(Gambel.)
Blanding’s Finch.
PLATE XII.—Adult Male.

Blanding’s Finch was discovered in the Rocky mountains by Dr. Gambel, and named by him in honor of one of the most universally respected of American naturalists and friends of science, William Blanding, M. D., formerly a resident of Philadelphia, but now of Providence, Rhode Island. During many years of previous residence in South Carolina, Dr. Blanding omitted no opportunity of facilitating by observation and active exertion in contributing to collections, the advancement of the interests of Natural Science in all its departments, and he has been deservedly complimented by naturalists whose studies he has been the means of promoting, and with whom personally he has for many years maintained relations of the most friendly character. Many of the cultivators of Natural History in America owe much to the advice and encouragement of Dr. Blanding, and among such we gratefully include ourselves.

This bird belongs to a group of which several species are known to inhabit Mexico and South America, and of which one other species is a summer visitor to Texas. All of them are birds of handsome and even elegant general appearance and color of plumage, and partake much of the inoffensive habits of other birds of the family to which they belong, and which includes the Finches and Sparrows. Subsisting for the greater part on seeds, much of their time is passed on the ground, or in undergrowths of shrubbery in the immediate vicinity of fields and meadows, or other grass-bearing localities.

Plate 12
Blanding’s Finch
Embernagra Blandingiana (Gambel)

We regard the present species as the handsomest Bird of the family of Sparrows yet discovered in the United States, and regret that it is not in our power to lay before our readers an account of it at all full or satisfactory, little having been placed on record, or having otherwise come to our knowledge, beyond the fact that it inhabits sparingly the Rocky mountains, California and northern Texas. It is probably one of the many species which migrate in summer to those countries from Mexico, and even further southward, as is the case with the greater part of the numerous species of birds which are summer-residents in the eastern portion of this continent. Not more than three specimens of this bird have been brought home in the many extensive collections made by the various naturalists who have visited the countries where it is found, from which we must necessarily infer at present that it is one of the rarest of the birds of California and the Rocky mountains, though more abundant in Texas.

From Dr. Gambel’s paper containing his description of this bird, published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, I. p. 260, (April 1843,) and subsequently in the Journal of the same society, I. p. 51 (Quarto), we extract the following:

“Of this new and singularly marked species, I procured a single specimen only, in September, on the bank of a small stream in the Rocky mountains, about half-way between New Mexico and the Colorado of the West. It kept in low bushes, in company with Fringilla guttata, and F. graminea, occasionally uttering a single chirp. The throat and breast of this species very much resemble those of Fringilla Pennsylvanica.”

Dr. Woodhouse procured, also, one specimen, only, during Capt. Sitgreaves’ Expedition to the Zuñi, and Colorado rivers, respecting which he observes: “Whilst encamped on the Rio Salado, near San Antonio, Texas, in the beginning of April, I procured a solitary specimen of this beautiful and interesting bird. Its favorite haunts seemed to be the low bushes in the vicinity of the creek; this was the only one that I observed east of the Rio Grande. In the Zuni mountain, and in the vicinity of the pueblo of Zuñi, it was quite abundant.” (Report of an Expedition down the Zuñi and Colorado rivers, by Capt. L. Sitgreaves, of the Topographical Engineer Corps, U. S. Army, Washington, 1853. Zoology, p. 85.)

It was also seen by Dr. Heermann, in California.

Our figure is that of a male, and is about two-thirds of the natural size.

The plant represented, is Nuttallia digitata, a native of California.