Genus CHONDESTES, Swainson.
Chondestes, Swainson, Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 435.—Ib. Fauna Bor.-Am. II, 1831. (Type, Chondestes strigatus, Sw., equal to Fringilla grammaca, Say.)
Chondestes grammaca.
5557 ♂
Gen. Char. Bill swollen; both outlines gently curved; the lower mandible as high as the upper; the commissure angulated at the base, and then slightly sinuated. Lower mandible rather narrower at the base than the length of the gonys; broader than the upper. Tarsi moderate, about equal to the middle toe; lateral toes equal and very short, reaching but little beyond the middle of the penultimate joint of the middle toe, and falling considerably short of the base of middle claw. Wings, long, pointed, reaching nearly to the middle of the tail; the tertials not longer than the secondaries; the first quill shorter than the second and third, which are equal. The tail is moderately long, considerably graduated, the feathers rather narrow, and elliptically rounded at the end.
Streaked on the back. Head with well-defined large stripes. Beneath white, with a pectoral spot. Only one species recognized.
Chondestes grammaca, Bonap.
LARK SPARROW.
Fringilla grammaca, Say, in Long’s Exped. R. Mts. I, 1823, 139.—Bon. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 47, pl. v, f. 3.—Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 17, pl. cccxc. Chondestes grammaca, Bon. List, 1838.—Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 479.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 456.—Cooper & Suckley, 200.—Maynard, Birds E. Mass. 1870, 112 (Massachusetts).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 193. Emberiza grammaca, Aud. Synopsis, 1839, 101.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 63, pl. clviii.—Max. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 343. Chondestes strigatus, Swainson, Philos. Mag. I, 1827, 435.
Sp. Char. Hood chestnut, tinged with black towards the forehead, and with a median stripe and superciliary stripe of dirty whitish. Rest of upper parts pale grayish-olive, the interscapular region alone streaked with dark brown. Beneath white, a round spot on the upper part of the breast, a broad maxillary stripe cutting off a white stripe above, and a short line from the bill to the eye, continued faintly behind it, black. A white crescent under the eye, bordered below by black and behind by chestnut, on the ear-coverts. Tail-feathers dark brown, the outermost edged externally and with more than terminal third white, with transverse outline; the white decreasing to the next to innermost, tipped broadly with white. Length, 6 inches; wing, 3.30.