Autumnal plumage (60,162, Kodiak, received from Dr. J. F. Brandt). Differs very remarkably in appearance from the preceding. The pattern of coloration is everywhere plainly plotted, there being a distinct vertical and sharply defined superciliary stripe. Ground-color above ashy, somewhat overlaid by rusty, except on the sides of the neck. Whole crown, outer surface of wings, and dorsal streaks, rusty rufous; black streaks on crown and upper tail-coverts obsolete. Beneath pure white medially, the markings rusty rufous. Wing, 3.30; tail, 3.60; bill, .47 and .30.
Hab. Kodiak and Unalaschka.
This race represents the extreme extent of variation in the species, and it would be difficult for a species to proceed farther from the normal standard; indeed, the present bird is so different even in form, especially of bill, from melodia, that, were it not for the perfect series connecting them, few naturalists would hesitate to place them in different genera.
Habits. No information has so far been published in reference to the nesting of this Sparrow, or of any peculiar habits.
LINCOLN’S FINCH.
Fringilla lincolni, Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 539, pl. cxciii.—Nutt. Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 569. Linaria lincolni, Rich. List, 1837. Passerculus lincolni, Bonap. List, 1838. Peucæa lincolni, Aud. Synopsis, 1839, 113.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 116, pl. clxxvii.—Bonap. Consp. 1850, 481.—Ib. Comptes Rendus, XXVII, 1854, 920. Melospiza lincolni, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 482.—Dall & Bannister, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 285 (Alaska).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 216. Passerculus zonarius, (Bp.) Sclater, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1856, 305.
Sp. Char. General aspect above that of M. melodia, but paler and less reddish. Crown dull chestnut, with a median and lateral or superciliary ash-colored stripe; each feather above streaked centrally with black. Back with narrow streaks of black. Beneath white, with a maxillary stripe curving round behind the ear-coverts; a well-defined band across the breast, extending down the sides, and the under tail-coverts, of brownish-yellow. The maxillary stripe margined above and below with lines of black spots and a dusky line behind eye. The throat, upper part of breast, and sides of the body, with streaks of black, smallest in the middle of the former. The pectoral bands are sometimes paler. Bill above dusky; base of lower jaw and legs yellowish. Length, 5.60; wing, 2.60.
Hab. United States from Atlantic to Pacific, north to the Yukon River and the Mackenzie, and south through Mexico to Panama. Oaxaca (Scl. 1858, 303); Xalapa (Scl. 1859, 365); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 18); Vera Cruz, winter (Sum. M. B. S. I, 552).
There is little or no difference in specimens of this bird from the whole of its range, except that one from near Aspinwall is considerably smaller than usual, the streaks on the back narrower, and the color above more reddish. A young bird from Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie, is much like the adult.