Passerella townsendi, Nuttall.
TOWNSEND’S SPARROW.
? Emberiza unalaschkensis, Gmel. II, 1788, 875 (based on Aonalaschka Bunting, Lath. II, 202, 48; Unalaschka B., Pennant, 52). Passerella u. Finsch, Abh. Nat. III, 1872, 53 (Alaska). Fringilla townsendi, Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 236, pl. ccccxxiv, f. 7.—Ib. Syn. 1839.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 43, pl. clxxxvii. Fringilla (Passerella) townsendi, Nutt. Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 533. Passerella townsendi, Bon. Conspectus, 1850, 477.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 489.—Cooper & Suckley, 204.—Dall & Bannister, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 285. Fringilla meruloides, Vig. Zoöl. Blossom (Monterey, Cal.), 1839, 19. ? Emberiza (Zonotrichia) rufina, Kittlitz, Denkw. 1858, 200. (He compares it with P. iliaca, but says it is darker. Sitka.)
Sp. Char. Above very dark olive-brown, with a tinge of rufous, the color continuous and uniform throughout, without any trace of blotches or spots; the upper tail-coverts and outer edges of the wing and tail feathers rather lighter and brighter. The under parts white, but thickly covered with approximating triangular blotches colored like the back, sparsest on the middle of the body and on the throat; the spots on the belly smaller. Side almost continuously like the back; tibiæ and under tail-coverts similar, the latter edged with paler. Axillars brown; paler on edges. Claws all very large and long; the hinder claw longer than its toe. First and sixth quills about equal. Length, about 7 inches; wing, about 3.00.
Hab. Pacific coast of United States, as far south as Sacramento, and Fort Tejon? north to Kodiak (and Unalaschka?).
Passerella townsendi.
2874 ♀
This species differs a good deal in form from P. iliaca. The claws are much larger and stouter, the wing a good deal shorter and more rounded. The differences in color are very appreciable, the tints being dark sepia-brown instead of red, and perfectly uniform above, not spotted; the under parts much more thickly spotted.
Specimens from Alaska show a tendency to longer and perhaps more slender bills. Some are rather more rufous-brown than the type; others have a faint tinge of ashy anteriorly, although scarcely appreciable. This is especially noticeable in some skins from Fort Tejon, they being almost exactly intermediate between townsendi and schistacea, or megarhynchus.
Young birds are not materially different from the adult, except in having the white of under parts replaced by pale rusty; the back is rather duller in color, but without spots or stripes of any kind.