quill almost longest. The legs are long, the outstretched toes reaching to the end of the tail; the lateral toe considerably shorter than the middle, which is not much longer than the hinder. The tail is short, narrow, and emarginate; the feathers acute.
Species and Varieties.
Common Characters. Above grayish-brown, beneath white; whole upper surface, as well as the breast and sides, streaked with dusky. A light superciliary stripe, and a whitish maxillary one, the latter bordered above and below by stripes of coalesced dusky streaks.
A. Bill small, the culmen slightly concave in the middle portion; a median light stripe on the crown.
1. P. savanna. Superciliary stripe yellow anteriorly; streaks on the back blackish, sharply defined.
Throat and upper part of abdomen unstreaked; vertex-stripe without yellow tinge.
Bill .34 from forehead and .25 in depth at the base; wing, 2.85; tail, 2.30. Colors deep; outer surface of wing (in spring) decidedly reddish. Hab. Eastern Province of North America … var. savanna.
Bill, .32 and .20, or less; wing, 2.75; tail, 2.10. Colors very pale; outer surface of wing (in spring) pale ashy. Hab. Western Province of North America, except coast of California, where replaced by var. anthinus … var. alaudinus.
Bill, .37 and .27, or considerably more; wing, 3.10; tail, 2.40. Colors as in savanna. Hab. Northwest coast of North America. … var. sandwichensis.
Throat and upper part of abdomen streaked; vertex-stripe strongly tinged with yellow.