II. GENUS LOPHOPHANES. Kaup. Skiz. Entw. Eur. Thierw. (1829.)
Crested, bill moderate, strong, conic, entire, upper mandible rather the longer and slightly curved, nostrils basal, rounded and concealed by projecting feathers. Wings rather long, with the fourth and fifth primaries usually longest, tail rather long, legs and feet robust, the latter rather large, and provided with curved, strong and very sharp claws. Prevailing color of all known American species, cinereous.
This genus comprises the crested species of Europe and America, which were formerly included in the genus Parus, Linn., but which evidently form a natural and easily characterized group, fully entitled to generic distinction.
1. Lophophanes bicolor. (Linn) The crested Chickadee.
Parus bicolor. Linn. Syst. Nat. I. p. 340, (1766.)
Length about 6½ inches. Front black, crest and body above dark cinereous, tinged with greenish on the back, below ashy white, flanks reddish brown. Bill and legs nearly black. Sexes alike.
Hab. Eastern North America. Spec. in Mus. Acad. Philada.
2. Lophophanes atricristatus. (Cassin). The black-crested Chickadee.
Parus atricristatus. Cassin, Proc. Acad. Philada. V. p. 103, (Oct. 1850.)
Length (of skin) about 6 inches. Male—front, ashy white, crest black, entire plumage above cinereous, beneath ashy white, flanks reddish brown. Bill and legs black. Female, with the crest ashy, not black. Young, like the female, but with crest tinged with brown.
Hab. Texas and Mexico. Spec. in Mus. Acad. Philad. and in the National Collection Washington city.
3. Lophophanes inornatus. (Gambel). The plain-crested Chickadee.
Parus inornatus. Gambel. Proc. Acad. Philada. II. p. 265, (Aug. 1845.)
Length about 5½ inches. Front, crest and entire plumage above cinereous, strongly inclining to olive, below uniform whitish, cinereous. Bill and legs lead-colored. Sexes alike.
Hab. California. Spec. in Mus. Acad. Philada.
Obs. A plainly-colored species abundant in California, easily recognized by the uniform cinereous color of its plumage.
4. Lophophanes Wollweberi. Bonaparte, Comptes rendus, Acad. Paris, xxxi. p. 478. (Sept. 1850.) The Texan Chickadee.
Parus annexus. Cassin, Proc. Acad. Philada. V. p. 103. (Oct. 1850.)
Lophophanes galeatus. Cabanis Cat. Heine’s coll. p. 90. (1851.)
Length (of skin) about 5 inches. Anterior feathers of crest, cinereous, succeeding and most elongated, black, others margined with white, short occipital feathers black. Throat black, line commencing behind the eye, thence curving and uniting with the space of the same color on the throat, black. Line above the eye running into the crest and around on the neck, white. Entire plumage above cinereous, tinged with olive, below ashy white, bill and feet dark.
Hab. Texas. Spec. in Mus. Acad. Philada.
Obs. This species considerably resembles Lophophanes cristatus, (Linn.) a common European bird. I have no doubt that the names given above are synonymous; that applied by us being about one month later than the publication of the description by Bonaparte as cited.