[3] Winter plumage. Gray above more olivaceous, the black streaks more subdued by a rufous suffusion; streaks beneath with the rufous predominating, sometimes without any black.
[4] Winter plumage. Above rusty-olive, with little or no ashy, the black streaks broad and distinct. Streaks beneath with the black and rusty in about equal amount.
[5] In summer the streaks beneath are entirely intense black; in winter they have a slight rufous external suffusion.
[6] Melospiza melodia, var. mexicana, Ridgway. Mexican Song Sparrow. ? ? Melospiza pectoralis, von Müller.
Sp. Char. (Type, 60,046, Puebla, Mexico, A. Boucard.) Similar to M. melodia, but ground-color above olive-brown; inner webs of interscapulars pale ashy, but not in strong contrast. Crown and wings rusty-brown, the former with broad black streaks, and divided by a just appreciable paler line; back with broad black streaks without any rufous suffusion. Superciliary stripe pure light ash, becoming white anterior to the eye; two broad, dark-brown stripes on side of head,—one from the eye back along upper edge of auriculars, the other back from the rictus, along their lower border. Lower parts pure white, the flanks and crissum distinctly ochraceous; markings beneath broad and heavy, entirely pure deep black; those on the jugulum deltoid, on the sides linear. Wing, 2.60; tail, 2.85; bill, .37 and .24; tarsus, .85; middle toe without claw, .68. This may possibly be the M. pectoralis of von Müller. The description cited above, however, does not agree with the specimen under consideration. The pectoral spots are expressly stated to be brown, not even a black shaft-streak being mentioned, whereas the pure black spots of the specimen before us render it peculiar in this respect, being, in fact, its chief characteristic.
[7] Zonotrichia boucardi, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1867, 1, pl. I, La Puebla, Mex. (scarcely definable as distinct from ruficeps).
[8] Peucæa botterii, Sclater, Cat. Am. B. 1862, 116 (Zonotrichia b. P. Z. S. 1857, 214), Orizaba. Coturniculus mexicana, Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VIII, 1867, 474 (Colima).
This form can scarcely be defined separately from æstivalis. The type of C. mexicanus, Lawr., is undistinguishable from Orizaba specimens. A specimen in the worn summer plumage (44,752♀, Mirador, July) differs in having the streaks above almost wholly black, with scarcely any rufous edge; the crown is almost uniformly blackish. The feathers are very much worn, however, and the specimen is without doubt referrible to botteri.
The Peucæa notosticta of Sclater (P. Z. S. 1868, 322) we have not seen; it appears to differ in some important respects from the forms diagnosed above, and may, possibly, be a good species. Its place in our system appears to be with section “A,” but it differs from ruficeps and boucardi in the median stripe on the crown, and the black streaks in the rufous of the lateral portion, the blacker streaks of the dorsal region, and some other less important points of coloration. The size appears to be larger than in any of the forms given in our synopsis (wing, 2.70; tail, 3.00). Hab. States of Puebla and Mexico, Mex.
[9] Passerella obscura, Verrill, Pr. Bost. N. H. Soc. IX, Dec. 1862, 143 (Anticosti). (Type in Museum Comp. Zoöl., Cambridge.)